United Nations
UNHRC
10 March 2013
Draft Resolution 1 Sponsors: South Africa, Canada, Cyprus, Belgium, Democratic Republic of Congo, France, Poland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States Signatories: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Cyprus Cote D’lvoire, Ecuador, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Spain, Philippines, Ireland, New Zealand, Hungary, Israel, Columbia, Luxembourg, The United Nations Human Rights Council, Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations; Reaffirming also, its commitment to the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law and international human rights law; Confirming its firmness and commitment to the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals, in which it recognized the collective responsibility of Governments to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level, and stressing the duty of Member States to achieve greater justice and equality for all; Recalling Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in which, it is stated that all people are born equal in society and thus, should all be afforded the rights and civil liberties to which everyone is entitled. Recalling the UN Human Rights Council’s previous resolution pertaining to the rights of LGBTs; also the report of the United Nations High Comissiner for Human Rights (17 November, 2011); Noting with zest article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in which it is stated that all people are born equal in society and thus should all be afforded the rights and civil liberties to which everyone is entitled; Recognizing the importance of local religious institutions; focusing on those that collaborate with the prevalent local religion to promote equal rights regardless of sexual orientation Noting that attacks against the LGBT community often arise from misinformation and ignorance 1.Urges the multilateral support of UN members towards creating a specific protection initiative called the “Chameleon Comittee” which is guided towards the protection of human rights and the advocation of realistic policy while still considering the particular cultural context in the given region. UN member-states will select committee representatives on domestic level to ensure equal representation in the council. The initiative will then submit annual reports for each
country evaluating their progress in affording their citizens equal rights with respect to the LGBT community. The reports produced by this initiative committee will evaluate the countries situation based on specific rights to create a comprehensive spectrum for LGBT rights. The reports will then be taken into consideration by the UNHRC when considering regionally sensitive recommendations for the improvement of these rights. Realistic policies include influencing sex education on the use of male and female prophylactics, needles; awareness about the dangerous nature of discrimination; distribution of condoms, needles, artificial insemination tools; affording refugee status to persecuted individuals, the sending of profalactics and disease preventing goods; an Anti-Discrimination law like that adopted by Belgium; promoting campaigns for young people (10-24 years old), that represent 1/3 of affected society and spread this kind of education amidst developing countries; providing tools for health and medical facilities to prevent HIV/AIDS, with the focus on developing countries, “hot spots� ( places where great amounts of people usually go for their necessities i.e. water and food collection points; markets, etc.), rural areas for the establishment of NAPS (National Aids Programs) to fight HIV/AIDS transmission and infection; 2. Discourages the common thought that LGBT are linked to HIV, by promoting equality also in diversity-related issues; 3. Reaffirms the declaration of Montreal of 2006, which recommends all countries in the world to recognize and promote the 17th of May of each year as the International Day against Homophobia; 4. Suggests that the aforementioned task force will also be responsible for providing adequate education for and about the LGBT community in order to protect it from persecution due to misinformation. Furthermore, the task promotion of lifeskilled based HIV/STDs education for young people, for the purpose of prevention, treatment and health care would also be assigned to this task force; 5. Encourages cooperation with all denominations of belief and local leaders to reach compromise and find solutions for the implementation of basic human rights of LGBTs. It is prudent to note that this must be a shared commitment between religious institutions and government; 6. Recognizes the need for developing countries to cooperate with developed countries who have successfully improved their LGBT rights in the last 50 years; 7. Supports the duty of all nations to establishing institutions for Social Hygiene Clinics and Local AIDS Councils; and invest funds to support local responses to prevent the spread of disease. These establishments will treat all forms of sexually transmitted diseases and infections including HIV/AIDS sans restrictions based on sexual orientation, or gender identity; 8. Acknowledges the need of local governments should assume the responsibility of providing realistic policies which would include establishing institutions for Social Hygiene Clinics and Local AIDS Councils and invest funds to support local responses to prevent the spread of the disease; 9. Requests with hope for countries to provide refugee status to people being persecuted or uprooted due to their LGBT status;
10. Affirms that local representation will yield respect for cultural differences, and will not infringe upon any countries sovereignty due to the fact that the particular method of aid given to a country to improve LGBT rights will be determined by a local representative.