ROME — The Vatican delegation to the United Nations registered its dissent this week for a decision to smuggle the category of “gender identity” into a U.N. statement on refugees.
Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said that the Vatican agrees that “the evolution over the years of political and humanitarian circumstances have necessitated a wider interpretation of the definition of a refugee,” but took issue with singling out gender categories as a class of persecuted individual seeking asylum.
Referring to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) “Note on International Protection,” Archbishop Ivan Jurkovič said that the Holy See Delegation “wishes to place on record its disagreement with the assertion in paragraph 11 of the Note on International Protection, that ‘refugee law now recognizes that those facing persecution on the grounds of age, gender and sexual orientation or gender identity may be refugees.’”
“The categories ‘sexual orientations’ and ‘gender identity,’ used in the text, find no clear and agreed definition in international law and risk the introduction of new forms of discriminatory categories within the international humanitarian community,” the archbishop stated in the July 7 meeting. “The inclusion of these terms is not necessary to ensure that anyone seeking protection because of persecution, for any reason, receives protection.”
To ensure the relevance and effectiveness of “interventions related to protection, assistance, and durable solutions, it is critical that the UNHCR maintains a holistic and integrated approach to its activities,” Jurkovič said. “This is the only way to ensure that all those who are in need of protection receive it, and to avoid the risk of stigmatizing particular individuals or populations, whether they be from majority or minority communities.”
Earlier this year, Archbishop Jurkovič made a similar critique of a U.N. report proposing that religious freedom must “surrender” to gender and reproductive rights.
Speaking in Geneva last March, the archbishop stated that a report presented by the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief actually constituted “an attack on freedom of religion or belief as well as freedom of conscience” by prioritizing gender-based rights over religious liberty.
The archbishop declared:
Particularly unacceptable and offensive are the numerous references that recommend that freedom of religion or belief and conscientious objection must be surrendered for the promotion of other so-called ‘human rights,’ which certainly do not enjoy consensus, thus being a sort of ‘ideological colonization’ on the part of some States and international institutions.
In his report, U.N. official Ahmed Shaheed argued that gender-based discrimination “is being perpetuated both in the public sphere and by and within religious communities and entities.”
LGBT+ persons have experienced “gender-specific” discrimination that “impedes their ability to fully enjoy their human rights,” Shaheed declared, “by State and non-state actors relying on religious ‘justifications’ for their actions.”
Shaheed said:
Discriminatory religious edicts inform laws and policies that restrict sexual and reproductive rights in the region, including, but not limited to, partial or total bans on access to abortion and contraception, prohibitions on assisted reproductive technologies and gender reassignment surgery, and limits on the provision of evidence-based sexuality education.
Shaheed said that the Human Rights Committee “has called on States to ensure that women have access to legal abortion notwithstanding conscientious objection by medical practitioners, which it has referred to as a ‘barrier’ to access.”
In his response to the report, Archbishop Jurkovič noted that the Holy See “has always understood ‘gender’ and related terms according to the ordinary, generally accepted usage of the word ‘gender,’ based on the biological identity that is male and female.”
The archbishop stated:
My Delegation cannot but lament that the Report seems to focus less on the protection of men and women, of any faith or personal belief, that are persecuted or discriminated against (a still too vivid reality for millions of persons worldwide), and more on pushing a vision of human society that is not shared by all and does not reflect the social, cultural and religious reality of many peoples,” the archbishop stated.
The archbishop also noted that Mr. Shaheed’s report represents an unfortunate pattern.
“It is rather unfortunate, yet increasingly less surprising given its frequency, that a UN Report, which should defend the fundamental and universal human right of freedom of religion or belief as well as the right to conscientious objection, is now attacking the very reality it is called to defend,” he said.
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