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18 Hum. Rts. Q. 67 (1996)
Getting Lesbian and Gay Issues on the International Human Rights Agenda

handle is hein.journals/hurq18 and id is 77 raw text is: HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY Getting Lesbian and Gay Issues on the International Human Rights Agenda Douglas Sanders' One of the remaining areas of discrimination which is yet to receive serious and detailed attention within the United Nations is that of sexual orientation. Australia recognises that discussion of the issue is bound to be difficult given the diversity of political, cultural and religious traditions which the international community is required to address. Nevertheless, consideration of this issue is long overdue.2 The first openly homosexual person spoke in a UN human rights forum in August 1992, amidst some open hostility to his remarks.3 The speaker noted that lesbian women and gay men were totally unrepresented in UN work and had no organizations with consultative status. Organizations of lesbian women and gay men were first accredited to a UN meeting in 1993, the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights, where three organizations participated. The first lesbian and gay organiza- tion to gain consultative status with the Economic and Social Council was the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), approved by a roll- call vote in July 1993. Approval required that ECOSOC abandon its tradition of making such decisions by consensus. In September 1993, the 1. Since 1992 the author has represented the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) in various United Nations fora. Information in this article on ILGA and on discussions in particular meetings of United Nations bodies are, in the absence of citations of other sources, drawn from the author's participation, personal notes, or from internal ILGA sources. When available, citations are supplied for public sources, including the quarterly ILGA Bulletin, the periodic ILGA Euroletter and United Nations publications. 2. Statement by Ms. Shirely Lithgow on behalf of the Australian delegation to the Fifty-First Session of the Commission on Human Rights, Geneva, 27 February 1995. This statement repeats a statement first made on 23 June 1993 at the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna, Austria. 3. Alya Z. Kayal et al., The Forty-Fourth Session of the UN Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, 15 HuM. RTS. Q. 410, 457 (1993). Human Rights Quarterly 18 (1996) 67-106 © 1996 by The Johns Hopkins University Press

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