CAIRO,
March 12, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The UN High
Commission on Human Rights (HCHR) will debate during its 61st session,
to kick off in Geneva on Monday, March 14, a long-delayed
controversial draft resolution on sexual orientation.
The
six-week session will begin with a “high-level segment” for
three-and-a-half days, featuring speeches by high government officials
and by heads of UN agencies and intergovernmental organizations,
according to the HCHR Web site.
The
53 members of the HCHR, the principal human rights organ of the United
Nations, will then move through the busy agenda.
The
controversial draft “calls upon all States to promote and protect
the human rights of all persons regardless of their sexual
orientation.”
Dr.
Farooq Hassan, an expert in international law and human rights and a
former member of the HCHR, told IslamOnline.net, “If it [UNHCHR]
endorses the Sexual Orientation Resolution, I feel that a great deal
of pious and good work in the last many years by pro-family NGOs would
have gone to waste.”
Islam
forbids any homosexual or lesbian activity and allows marriage only
between a man and a woman.
Concerned
Women for America, a pro-family NGO, also echoed similar concerns.
The
advocacy group said, on its Web site, that “there is no definition
for sexual orientation, opening the door for pedophilia and other
aberrant sexual activities and preferences to be considered a human
right. If they are human rights, they cannot be outlawed and must be
protected and accommodated by governments.”
The
draft was first proposed by Brazil in 2003 and has twice been deferred
to the next HCHR session, according to the Web site of the HCHR.
In
April 2003, a filibuster led by Muslim states such as Pakistan and
Saudi Arabia, by introducing many amendments, made a vote impossible.
Last
year, United Families International, a pro-family NGO, championed an
e-mail campaign against the draft and it was withdrawn for lack of
support, the UFI spokesman told IOL.
Other
pro-family NGOs also lobbied against the resolution.
Rights
Violations
The
agenda of the HCHR session also includes violations of human rights in
Arab occupied territories (Palestine and the Golan Heights), in Iraq,
in Darfur, and in Afghanistan, as well as in other countries.
Among
other topics are human rights and the fight against terrorism;
violations of the rights of Arabs and Muslims; and combating
defamation of religion.
Dr.
Hassan told IOL that the session “will really tell if the perceived
progress of human rights regime internationally has any tangible
existence.”
He
said a matter of high significance for the vast Islamic populations
“is whether the landmark UN Declaration of 1968 on the Rights of the
Occupied Territories is still operative. Or has it been
swept away by the most recent ‘evolution’ of the war against
terrorism?”
The
international law and human rights expert regretted that “Muslims
the world over are at the receiving end of this political campaign
and it is up to the highest watchdog of international HR law to
show the world what has gone wrong.”
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