The world is in flames, Christians beheaded all over the Middle East, much of that region in anarchic chaos, increased nuclear saber-rattling from Russia, many parts of the world crippled economically, hundreds of thousands dying from malaria, and a billion people cannot get a clean glass of drinking water. Yet this week, the United Nations General Assembly took up bullying.
The first ever stand-alone anti-bullying resolution passed the General Assembly on Monday, Stefano Gennarini, who covers the General Assembly for the Center for Family & Human Rights (C-Fam), reported in the group’s weekly Friday Fax report.
Gennarini writes, “Once the resolution was adopted by consensus, countries behind it wasted no time in making their intentions known.” The European Union said, “We regret that bullying because of the sexual orientation and gender identity of children or their parents was not reflected in the resolution.” The first draft of the resolution included language about sexual orientation, but it was removed in negotiations.
The United States delegation said the Secretary General’s report that is mandated by the resolution must reflect the “health concerns of LGBT youth.”
The bullying resolution was a stalking horse for the ongoing attempts to introduce “sexual orientation and gender identity” as a new category of non-discrimination in international human rights law on par with established categories like freedom of religion. The issue regularly roils the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
As expected, the Africans pushed back. One delegate told Gennarini that currently, there is “no consensus on sexual orientation and gender identity” in the General Assembly and that his country had more serious issues with which to contend.