Gay rights push at UN
The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) will push for Australia to introduce federal anti-discrimination legislation covering sexuality and gender identity at the United Nations in Geneva.
The AHRC has produced a draft submission for an audit of Australia’s human rights as part of the 8th Universal Periodic Review early next year.
Section 12 of the submission notes, “Many GLBTI people in Australia experience significant levels of violence, harassment, bullying and discrimination in the workplace and the broader community … The Commission recommends that sexual orientation and gender diversity be included as grounds of protection in federal discrimination laws.”
The submission also mentions civil marriage rights and the difficulty some sex and gender diverse people have obtaining official documents that accurately reflect their sex and gender.
The AHRC has called for public comment on the draft before it is finalised, including its GLBTI rights recommendations.
The NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (GLRL), Australian Coalition for Equality (ACE) and Australian Marriage Equality (AME) all urge community members to voice their opinion.
“The NSW Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby will be reviewing the AHRC draft submission and making comments where necessary and also encourages members of the GLBTI community to submit their comments,” NSW GLRL convenor Kellie McDonald said.
“It is very likely that social conservatives will use this comment process to push to have issues such as same-sex marriage removed from the submission paper.”
AME spokesman Rodney Croome told Sydney Star Observer it would ask the AHRC for marriage equality to be included in the submission.
“We have also requested a meeting with the Human Rights Commissioner, Catherine Branson, to discover why the AHRC failed to recommend marriage equality,” Croome said.
“The credibility of the AHRC is undermined if it cannot recommend a human rights reform that has the overwhelming support of the Australian community.”
ACE’s Corey Irlam said his organisation would push for recommendations on marriage equality, plus other issues including protection on the grounds of relationship status, and reform allowing transgender and intersex people to ensure their official documents accurately reflect their sex and gender.
The document should also “refer to discriminatory state laws in the area of same-sex parenting and recommend they be reformed”, Irlam said.
All three organisations are considering lodging their own submissions with the Universal Periodic Review.
info: Comments on the document must be received by June 2 and can be lodged at www.humanrights.gov.au/upr/feedback.html
The UN is better than nothing. It was international pressure via the UN that made the Malawi government drop the 14 year jail sentence those two gay men were facing (for getting married – you get less for murder in various jurisdictions).
I have no arguments against this campaign. But I would like more rigorous actions against the death penality – especially where it is used against gays in places like Mauritania, Saudi Arabia and other repeat offenders.
For the benefit of Bob and everyone else – Marriage is not a ‘church thing’ – it is one of the heads of power of the Federal Constitution.
In the old days the church did have jurisdiction on legal matters in certain areas such as marriage, divorce, wills and succession.
Those matters were dealt with in Ecclesiastical Courts and administered by Churchs that were established in their respective countries.
The Churchs no longer have jurisdiction over those matters.
The Federal Government has jurisdiction to make laws in relation to marriage in Australia.
It is within the power of the Federal Government to amend the law to include same sex couples.
While I broadly agree with the ANHRC submission, I think the importance of same-sex marriage is overstated. U.S. President Obama was asked, before he was elected, his opinion on the matter, and he surprised many by saying that he was not in favour. He went on the explain that while he supported all forms of civil rights for gays, marriage (as distinct from civil union)is a church thing, and as such is really a matter for the church rather than the state. It would be a bit like the government telling the church how to run their church services – it should be up to the church, and if the individual doesn’t like it they don’t join the church, or they leave it.
I therefore don’t think it’s of over-riding importance whether or not two men or two women should be allowed to marry. What is important is that they should be able to have some kind of civil union that confers the right to own property jointly, assign superannuation, inheritance rights, right to adopt children, etc. to the same extent that opposite-sex couples have those rights.
I also think it’s important to acknowledge the great strides that have been made by state and federal governments in matters of gay rights, since the dark ages of the 1950s and 1960s. In particular the present government is light years ahead of what we had under Howard. They have removed all sorts of special discrimination provisions, and they deserve some kind of recognition for it.
OMG Chuck! EVERY country has human rights issues. Using your logic NO country would be a member of the UN. As for traveling
to other countries I guess you are stuck in Australia (I am assuming you are Australian). After reading chillisauce100’s comments about Australia and using your standards I will avoid
Australia. Do not travel to Canada as our human rights record is deplorable as yours. Anyways have a nice life!
“Many GLBTI people in Australia experience significant levels of violence, harassment, bullying and discrimination in the workplace and the broader community”
The dynamics of these actions and the way the proposal addresses the actions and trys to provide a remedy is not clear.
Violence, harassment, bullying and discrimination.
Taking the recent attack on the young gay couple at a club in the western suburbs as an example;
The young gay couple were subject to violence,harassment and bullying.
They then became subject to discrimination by the NSW Police who did not investigate the matter for the purpose of apprehending the offenders because of cultural homophobia in the NSW Police.
The act of discrimination was committed by the NSW Police.
The NSW Police discriminated against the young gay couple because of their gender and because the NSW Police are culturally homophobic.
We already have anti-discrimination laws in NSW but those laws were not applied to the police who omitted to investigate the assault and battery of the young gay couple at the western suburbs club.
New laws and old laws are of little use if they are not applied.
You can hold the UN accountable too. NO country should be a member if they’ve got human rights issue within their country. The UN is NOTHING and good for NOTHING. What are they doing? When will they stand some ground on any subject. Yes, I Gay rights are at the upmost importance, but look at the UAE, in Dubai a married heterosexual couple is jailed for kissing in public. I refuse to go to any country where their are human rights issues. Look at Egypt. I had thought about going to Malaysia, but then learned about how they treat Gay’s… I REFUSE to travel to these countries, I will not spend a dollar in a place where people are not treated well. Maybe if more people did this, we would live in a better world and truly… shouldn’t we all treat each other as we would wish to be treated ourselves? But look at Dubai… who would believe one could be jailed for kissing their heterosexual spouse in public. (and from what I hear, it was just a peck on the face, in front of their children at dinner, they were on their anniversary) Shameful. We all need to take a stand on these issues.
In 2010 80 countries still make gay sex a crime – this has to stop. There needs to be full sexual freedom for adults with other adults – with an equal age of consent to heterosexuals AROUND THE WHOLE WORLD.
Lawmakers, politicians who are lobbied and influenced by extremist religious fundamentalism groups of both Christians and Muslims in those 80 countries with so called “sodomy laws” should stop imposing there dangerous suicidal beliefs on to others.
What does the exact purpose of “sodomy laws” (that were written in the last 1800s) have anyway I might ask???? – It does not stop gay sex – it only stigmatizes gay sex and labels gay men (and lesbians) as criminals along side murders, rapists and kiddy fiddlers.
In Australia at a federal level gay sex was only made legal in 1994. At a state level, South Australia was the first in 1975 and Tasmania was the last on the 1 May 1997 to allow gay sex between men – And NSW was the last state in 2003 to have an equal age of consent at 16 (for a state that “prides itself” on the Mardi Gras).
What I find very interesting in 2010 is that Australia is WAY BEHIND 3 religious Catholic nations of Portugal, Mexico and Spain – in terms of same sex marriage laws. How embarrassing to be a “supposedly secular” nation such as us to BAN gay marriage in 2004 – 10 years after gay sex was allowed at a federal level.
Same sex marriage is the last civil rights issue along side minimum wages, abolishing slavery, abolishing the death penalty, giving women the right to vote, allowing women property rights, allowing gay sex, allowing interracial marriages, outlawing rape within a marriage, workplace safety, aboriginal recognition and reconciliation and not forgetting the common law.