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Campaign Update!
Please read this media statement issued by the Coalition to End Discrimination and other organisations at a press conference held on the 17th of March 2011. The statement concerns South Africa and the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Joint Statement to be delivered at the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council on the 21st of March 2011.
THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT MUST ENDORSE AND VOTE IN FAVOUR OF ENDING VIOLENCE AGAINST PEOPLE ON THE BASIS OF SEXUAL AND GENDER IDENTITY
1. The Ambassador of Colombia will be presenting a joint statement against violence on the basis sexual orientation and gender identity to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
2. The Joint Statement on ending acts of violence and related human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity calls on "States to take steps to end acts of violence, criminal sanctions and related human rights violations committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, encourage Special Procedures, treaty bodies and other stakeholders to continue to integrate these issues within their relevant mandates, and urge the Council to address these important human rights issues."
3. All countries are required to sign onto the statement by 18 March 2011 and the statement will be debated and hopefully adopted by the UNHRC on 21 March 2011. At this point more than 58 countries have signed.
4. By 15 March 2011, South Africa had not yet endorsed the statement nor given a positive undertaking to the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project or the Coalition to End Discrimination. Government has indicated that it is not lobbying against the statement. This is not enough.
5. We demand that Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane immediately gives an undertaking that government will sign onto the “Joint Statement on ending acts of violence and related human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity" and that South Africa's representative on the United Nations Human Rights Council will be present to vote in favour of the statement.
6. We further demand that government vote positively on all human rights questions (including those affecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people) in international forums such as the United Nations.
7. International law including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights requires all governments to protect human rights. Our Constitution also commands government to respect, protect, promote and fulfill the rights to freedom, equality and dignity of all people.