There is a growing unease in the developing world with the West’s insistence on special new rights for persons on the basis of their sexual preferences or perceived gender. In Africa, where families are influential units in society, such things are considered immoral and taboo.
Flashback to 2011
Flashback to 2011
From Thursday, Dec 6, 2011, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered a historic speech in Geneva, Switzerland, in recognition of International Human Rights Day. The speech focused on the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people around the world. Here is a video clip of the entire speech, made available by the United Nations. See story here: http://bit.ly/UoKc3M
United Nations human rights office unveils gay-rights campaign
New York: The United Nations' human rights office is launching its first global outreach campaign to promote more tolerance and greater equality for lesbians, gays, transgender people and bisexuals.
Called "Free & Equal," it's an unprecedented effort by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to change public attitudes around the world on issues that have bitterly divided the UN's own member states.
The multi-pronged campaign was announced on Friday at a news conference in Cape Town, South Africa, the home country of human rights commissioner Navi Pillay.
Called "Free & Equal," it's an unprecedented effort by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to change public attitudes around the world on issues that have bitterly divided the UN's own member states.
The multi-pronged campaign was announced on Friday at a news conference in Cape Town, South Africa, the home country of human rights commissioner Navi Pillay.
UN Launches Unprecedented Global Campaign for LGBT Equality
From the Huff:
In another sign of changing times, the United Nations today announced an unprecedented global public education campaign designed to raise awareness of homophobic violence and discrimination and promote greater respect for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people everywhere.
Launching the Free & Equal campaign at a press event in Cape Town, with Archbishop Desmond Tutu and South African Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron at her side, the UN's human rights chief Navi Pillay said that there was an urgent need for a concerted public education effort to tackle homophobia at its roots. "We know from experience that eradicating discrimination requires more than just changes in laws and policies. It takes a change in people's hearts and minds as well," she said.
With this campaign, the UN hopes to accelerate a change in attitudes toward LGBT people by provoking -- and helping to inform -- millions of conversations around the world and across the ideological spectrum. In addition to plain language fact sheets and articles, Free & Equal will generate a stream of creative content, including short videos, graphics and testimony, all designed to dispel common misconceptions and negative stereotypes and encourage people to look at the lives of LGBT people through the eyes of LGBT people themselves, as well as those of their parents, siblings and children. To kick off this theme of family, the campaign previewed "The Story of a Mother From Brazil," a short film telling the story of Edith Modesto, the mother of a young gay man, who shares her journey toward accepting her son.
