UN official tells nations to end gay executions
source: http://tinyurl.com/83wy27r
GENEVA -- The U.N.'s top human rights official urged countries Thursday to abolish legal discrimination against gays, including the death penalty for consensual sex, days after the U.S. government said it would use foreign aid and diplomacy to promote gay equal rights.
The U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said governments should also outlaw all forms of abuse based on sexual orientation and set the same age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual activity.
The report criticizes the continued existence of death penalty punishment for same-sex relations in at least five countries - Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen - as well as legislation explicitly criminalizing gays in 76 countries.
Last week, President Barack Obama directed government agencies to make sure U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote gay rights and fight discrimination. At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a speech to diplomats in Geneva, compared the struggle for gay equality to difficult passages toward women's rights and racial equality.
http://tinyurl.com/83wy27r
The U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said governments should also outlaw all forms of abuse based on sexual orientation and set the same age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual activity.
The report criticizes the continued existence of death penalty punishment for same-sex relations in at least five countries - Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen - as well as legislation explicitly criminalizing gays in 76 countries.
Last week, President Barack Obama directed government agencies to make sure U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance promote gay rights and fight discrimination. At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a speech to diplomats in Geneva, compared the struggle for gay equality to difficult passages toward women's rights and racial equality.
http://tinyurl.com/83wy27r
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