At
UN
Amid Flag
Banging on Gay
Rights, Ban's
Double
Standard, NGOs
Deferred,
Kafka like
UNCA
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 25 --
Countries'
name plates
were banged
down to
silence
other speakers
Friday in a
chaotic end to
a Kafka-esque
week in the
UN Committee
on
Non-Governmental
Organizations.
The
issue was gay
rights, and
the break-down
between
countries was
predicable.
Belgium
spoke in favor
of an Austrian
LGBT rights
group. Sudan
spoke in
opposition.
Israel,
represented by
Yoni
Ish-Hurwitz,
mentioned its
support for
the Australian
Lesbian
Medical
Association.
This was
immediately
opposed by
Morocco. But
the chair said
Morocco's was
not
a point of
order.
Afterward
several
pro gay rights
delegates
snarked to
Inner City
Press that
"some Arab men
seem so very
scared of
homosexuality,"
even
that a
particular
monarch in the
region might
himself be
gay.
Earlier
at the
day's UN noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
the spokesman
for
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon:
Inner
City
Press: is it
true that the
UN has a
policy of only
recognizing
homosexual
partnerships
or domestic
partnerships
if the staff
members
at issue come
from a country
that itself
recognizes
these domestic
partnerships,
that if not,
there is no
rights within
the UN either
for partners
or pensions,
benefits,
travel, all of
the above. Is
that true?
Spokesperson
Martin
Nesirky: The
Secretary-General,
as you know,
has been quite
outspoken when
speaking about
the rights for
the LGBT
[lesbian, gay,
bisexual,
transgender]
community. And
he is fully
aware of the
concerns of
staff members
from that…
from the
community, the
LGBT
community. And
I know that
the
Secretariat on
his
instructions
is
looking into
what can be
done. There
are
complications,
because of
national
legislation in
some cases.
But,
certainly, the
Secretary-General
has
undertaken,
through
colleagues in
the
Secretariat,
to look into
this matter.
The key point
here is that
he
has been a
clear advocate
for the rights
of the LGBT
community and
I
think that is
recognized by
people in the
community.
Hours
later after
the NGO
Committee
session, a
prominent
anti-gay
speaker told
Inner
City Press,
please don't
write about
this. Another,
more
reasonable,
said that
their
questions for
the NGO in
question
shouldn't be
answered by a
member state
but by the NGO
itself.
But
in this
committee the
NGOs are
rarely heard.
Inner City
Press spent
the
morning beside
the South
African
representative
of the group
Ilitha
Labantu,
described as "
aiming to
provide
immediate
access to
support and
education
services
around
violence
against women
and
children and
to provide
counseling to
survivors of
violence."
To
this, Sudan
formally asked
how the group
defines
"survivors of
violence;"
the group was
also asked
about its
finances.
Belgium noted
that the
information is
in the audited
financial
statement, but
agreed that
more questions
would be sent
to the group.
But
sent how?
Throughout
Friday
morning, the
NGO's
representative
asked to see
the
questions, so
she could
answer them
while still in
New York. The
goal of
questions,
often, is
simply to
stall or delay
the group.
This is true
not only on
the way in --
when a group
is applying
for
accreditation
with ECOSOC --
but even on
the
after-arising
reports.
The
representative
of one human
rights -
challenged
country on the
committee told
Inner
City Press, we
keep blocking
acceptance of
the reports,
if this
happens for
two cycles the
groups come
running to us,
offering to
take things
off their web
sites.
An
observer not
on
the NGO
Committee,
when Inner
City Press
told him this
story, joked
that maybe
after the
reports were
accepted, the
human rights
groups
would change
their web
sites back to
the original.
There
was talk
Friday about
arranging a
session on
Tuesday for a
seemingly
much-needed
discussion of
the NGO
Committee's
"working
methods."
But
ironically, in
terms of
another
dysfunctional
UN related
organization,
the UN
Correspondents
Association
has set up a
meeting at
that time
to serve
the desire of
correspondent
Louis
Charbonneau of
Reuters
which unlike Foreign
Policy's The
Cable
which ran a
follow-up
story giving
credit to
Inner City
Press, stole
Inner City
Press'
exclusive
story that US
official
Jeffrey
Feltman will
replace Lynn
Pascoe atop
the UN
Department of
Political
Affairs to
eject Inner
City Press through a
Kafka-esque
kangaroo
court.
Yet none of
these
correspondents
even came to
or covered the
NGO Committee.
It's a
shame: they
would fit
right in...
, 
