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Saudi Arabia protests inclusion of LGBTI rights in UN Development Agenda
Saudi Arabia on Sunday (27 September) objected to the inclusion of LGBTI rights in the UN Development Agenda, saying they run ‘counter to Islamic law.’
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told a UN summit of world leaders in New York that ‘mentioning sex in the text, to us, means exactly male and female,’ AP reported.
‘Mentioning family means consisting of a married man and woman,’ he said, adding that his country had the right not to follow any rules relating to any ‘deviations’ from that belief.
One of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals is to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health by 2030.
However, Saudi Arabia and the Vatican have expressed concern that references to ‘sexual rights’ include protections for LGBTI people.
Gay sex is a crime in Muslim-majority Saudi Arabia and is punishable by death under Sharia law.
The Saudi ambassador to the United Nations, Faisal bin Hassan Trad, said in June that calls to change the law were a ‘flagrant interference in its internal affairs.’
Even so, he was appointed chair of a UN human rights panel of ‘experts’ last week, which one NGO described as ‘scandalous.’
‘It is scandalous that the UN chose a country that has beheaded more people this year than ISIS to be head of a key human rights panel,’ said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
‘Petro-dollars and politics have trumped human rights.’
The post Saudi Arabia protests inclusion of LGBTI rights in UN Development Agenda appeared first on Gay Star News.
Darren Wee
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