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As a Lebanese diplomat at the United Nations, I have been compelled more than once to vote against sexual orientation becoming a human right. As a sympathizer of a humanist and inclusive agenda, I am appalled at the warlike rhetoric of conservative leaders around the world that politicize the issue to get the masses charged. To my dismay, however, the suit-wearing, clean-shaven UN delegates in New York have not proven to be much better.
Granted, global consensus on cultural issues is extremely difficult. Sometimes I wonder if it is possible at all. After more than three years of doing human rights work, I have found three clear obstacles to getting lesbian and gay issues on the international agenda: continuing stigma, poor organization, and the understanding that many states - especially those with Catholic or Islamic majorities - will block initiatives in this area. In addition, there is flagrant selectivity in human rights work in the UN. Many issues are avoided, such as discrimination against women in Muslim States, the lack of democracy in Saudi Arabia, racism in the United States, the caste system in South Asia, and the human rights performances of the major powers. Advancing a new issue in the UN requires effective lobbying and lead states. Yet most developing states firmly uphold that homosexuality does not exist in their culture! Therefore, it is difficult for them to see how an extension of rights to homosexuals would mean anything. It is as if they view western activists as constructing the politics of sexual minorities, with the aim of imposing them on the rest of the world. It is this perceived homogenization that is resisted by most UN member states.
The problem is that there is a strong Western bias in the very conception of existing human rights instruments. These were built upon premises of liberalism and individualism, and to impose these assumptions on cultures that reject them is often seen as a manifestation of imperialism. As a result, tying human rights instruments to a Western notion of sexuality unknown to developing states weakens these very instruments, especially since these states are required to apply the human rights instruments in their different national contexts.
Developing states often use anti-Western rhetoric to justify discrimination against homosexuals. In 1992, the Prime Minister of Malaysia even stated that the enhancement of democratic rights would actually lead to homosexuality! In April 2003, Brazil put forth a resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva urging an end to discrimination based on sexual orientation. After vigorous opposition from a group of Islamic countries, action was eventually postponed. Pakistan, a US ally in the fight against terrorism, went so far as to distribute a memo to Council members asserting that: "The toothless nondiscrimination resolution would constitute an insult to all Muslims." While other Western countries supported the resolution, the US said it would abstain if it came to a vote.
Other attempts to address gay and lesbian issues at the UN have had limited but promising success. In August 2003, the largest public event addressing gay issues was organized by UNGLOBE, the gay and lesbian employees association at the UN, attended by Secretary-General Kofi Annan. But despite such symbolic gestures, real progress is likely to be blocked by a strong block of homophobic nations, in which gays and lesbians are socially, culturally, and legally excluded.
Interestingly, these human rights violators are affected by political lobbying much more than by their actual adherence to human rights instruments - to which they voluntarily committed! For example, in 1992, the UN Human Rights Commission easily passed a resolution censuring Iraq. However, in 1989, before Iraq lost the support of the United States, a resolution denouncing Iraq's use of chemical weapons against the Kurds could not even get co-sponsorship.
In drafting human rights instruments, it is common to avoid controversial language if it is not previously agreed upon. Sexual orientation is an excellent example of such language. For example, the draft final statement of the 1993 Vienna Conference on human rights had a paragraph on equality that condemned discrimination on listed grounds. When Canada proposed adding "sexual orientation" to the list, a heated debate ensued, resulting in a general, open-ended prohibition of discrimination, without a list. The advantage of this course of action is that consensus is achieved. However, upon implementation of such a general paragraph, several interpretations inevitably arise on the question of whether sexual orientation is implicitly included as a right protected from discrimination.
It was not until 1995 that the first substantive discussion of sexual orientation took place in a UN forum: The Beijing Conference on Women. The draft Platform of Action contained four references to sexual orientation. These were discussed by the drafting committee, in a meeting now famous in the UN because it ended at 4 a.m. on a Friday, at the end of which the chair suggested that the controversial references be omitted. Thirty-three states supported inclusion of the references, and twenty objected. Five years later, during the "Beijing+5" review conference, (then) UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson delivered a controversial statement substantially in favor of a right to free sexual orientation. The session was marked by a revolt of many developing countries over the question of sexual orientation. The delegate from Pakistan said that Western delegations are "holding the women of the world hostage to one term, 'sexual orientation,'" when their real needs are clean water and help in overcoming illiteracy. Conservative NGOs charged the "rich west" with forcing a "failed personal morality" upon the developing world. The government of Poland was even (reportedly) threatened by European Union negotiators with losing Union membership over the pro-family positions it took during the conference.
