‘Gays threaten human race’

Libya’s delegate to the United Nations (UN) has told a planning meeting of the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council that gays threaten the continuation of the human race.

It was the first appearance in a regular council session by the post-Gaddafi government, whose membership was reinstated in November following Libya’s March 2011 suspension.

Libya’s representative took the floor last week to express the sharpest protest of any country against the council’s first panel on discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation, scheduled for March 7.

He told the gathering of ambassadors yesterday that LGBT topics “affect religion and the continuation and reproduction of the human race”.

The Libyan delegate added that, were it not for their suspension last year, Libya would have joined other Islamic states in opposing the council’s historic June 2011 resolution which for the first time mandated a UN report on discriminatory laws and violence against the LGBT community, as well as the upcoming panel.

In response to the comment, council president Laura Dupuy Lasserre said that the Human Rights Council “is here to defend human rights and prevent discrimination”.

Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation also protested the panel, saying that its 56 UN member states do not recognise LGBT issues as fundamental human rights, and that they are not under the mandate of the Human Rights Council.