France pushes homosexual agenda at the UN

Briefing: so much for the Catholic-friendly President Sarkozy soon to greet the Holy Father.

From C-Fam: (NEW YORK – C-FAM) Rama Yade, France’s Junior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Human Rights, this week announced that her country intends to
submit a draft “declaration” calling for the global decriminalization of
“homosexuality” at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in December. She
made the statement at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, which is hosting the 61st
annual conference of non-governmental organizations.

Ms. Yade cited France’s commitment to combat “homophobia” as part of a campaign to advance “universal” human rights. France holds the six-month European Union (EU) presidency through the end of the year, and thus will be able to speak on behalf of the 25 countries of the EU at the UN.

The announcement does not come as a surprise. French delegates had
indicated at the UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS this past June that France
would seek to advance homosexual rights globally while holding the EU
presidency.

What is unusual, however, is bringing the issue directly to the General
Assembly without first introducing it in the Third Committee – one of six
committees of the General Assembly, also known as the Social, Humanitarian and
Cultural Committee – where measures on social issues typically arise. Third
Committee debates on issues like sexual orientation and abortion tend to be
contentious, with language extensively negotiated.

A delegate from a country that consistently votes against attempts to
advance a pro-homosexual agenda told the Friday Fax that France was unlikely to
have the votes to secure a resolution in the Third Committee, and thus is
instead introducing a “political declaration” – distinct from either a
“resolution” or a “declaration” – which need not be voted upon. Any member
state can propose a political declaration, which other countries may then join,
before sending it to the Secretary General.

The delegate added that though political declarations are nonbinding, they
may reappear in a more definitive format later. Thus a resolution on the
Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty, which passed the Third Committee
last year, first appeared under the guise of General Assembly political
declaration.

Currently, an estimated 90 countries throughout the world criminalize
sodomy. It is expected that this action by France and other like minded states
will touted by proponents as an action of the General Assembly which would be
false. The document would also be touted by advocates as a development of a
soft law norm that signals a movement by states toward a rights-based
acceptance of homosexual conduct. The United States Supreme Court decision
Lawrence v. Texas, for example, cited the emergence of new norms
internationally in striking down state anti-sodomy laws.

Ms. Yade appears to be the French government’s point woman in advancing
this agenda. Born in 1976 in Senegal and raised in Paris suburbs, she is a
member of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s political party, the conservative
Union pour un Movement Populaire, or UMP, and a protégé of the President.

This past year there have been several calls at the UN for nations to
repeal anti-sodomy statutes, most notably at the UN High Level Meeting on
HIV/AIDS.