By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, January 31 -- In the UN's committee on non-governmental organization on Monday morning the application for accreditation of the Autonomous Women's Center, which mentioned discrimination against lesbians, was questioned and opposed by Pakistan, Morocco, Russia and Sudan.
Pakistan's representative asked sarcastically if the discrimination of lesbians was “against men.” He mocked the application's reference to disability, asking if “lesbianism is a disability.”
This followed not only previous fights in the ECOSOC Committee on NGOs but December's debate after which lesbians and gays were added to a UN resolution against extrajudicial executions from which the US abstained. In the run up to that vote, not only the United Arab Emirates for the Arab Group and Tajikistan for the Organization of the Islamic Conference but also Benin for the African Group urged that the LGBT amendment be opposed.
Now late January, some of the opposition has become more technical. Morocco argued that since the Autonomous Women's Center changed its name in 2009, it has not been in operation for the two years necessary for accreditation. Serbia, where the group is based, spoke in its defense.
Russia and Sudan, where women including a UN staff member have been sentenced to whipping for wearing pants, both joined the opposition to the Autonomous Women's Center. Sudan specifically joined in the opposition of Pakistan.
Pakistan's representative later in the session said that whatever UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon may have said, it was on his own behalf, not on behalf of member states. Pakistan argued in the ECOSOC Committee on NGOs on Monday that discrimination against gays and lesbians is “not recognized by the UN.”
In the past, Ban has dodged such questions by saying “it's up to member states,” or that he won't speak on particular application or motions pending for a vote before UN bodies. He has been out of town for days, but one wonders what if anything he will have to say about the mocking of gays and gay rights in the UN's North Lawn Building, three floors beneath his office, on January 31. Watch this site.
