Political Acknowledgement from OAS to UN resolutions
21st, November, 2012
When The United Belize Advocacy Movement entered the arena of hemispheric and regional advocacy we did not imagine we would have sustain our history of advocacy action through the OAS Coalition facilitated currently by Heartland Alliance International,the Caribbean Forum for the Liberation of Genders and Sexuality, the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities, PANCAP and many petitions sites like allout.org and avazz. We have engaged PAHO, PEPFAR at its regional meeting in the Bahamas in 2011 and the Global Commission on HIV and the Law submitting abstracts and comments to their report for the region. We have represented at the UN High Level meeting twice, the last was as part of the Belize UN Delegation.
What makes the UN resolution on Extrajudicial Killing found here http://www.iglhrc.org/binary-data/ATTACHMENT/file/000/000/610-1.pdf, especially important is that there is now visible political acknowledgement that L.G.B.T Citizens in Belize matters. What makes 2012 support important, is that, Belize is the consistent acknowledgement of the Human Rights of its Citizens from 2010 when it first expressed it support after calls were made to the Foreign Ministry. This follows efforts at the OAS since 2008 where Belize has not resisted supportive resolutions that condemns acts of violence and other human rights abuses. We are now in 2012 and have ensured with our Caribbean and Latin American partners that 5 OAS resolutions have passed called Human Rights; Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
The UN resolution on Extrajudicial Killings that included sexual orientation and gender identity, it is our hope will continue to bosom into the next voting period. See here for 2012 photo of voting:
The voting process for the resolution had three votes in the following way:
One on each of two amendments, and one on the full resolution. Belize joined the Bahamas, Barbados and the DR in OPPOSING the deletion of sexual orientation and gender identity from the text. Jamaica and St. Vincent both voted to support the deletion. That amendment failed. The rest of the Caribbean did not vote or abstained. But Trinidad & Tobago, which abstained, took the floor to clarify they did not support inclusion of gender identity in the text.
On the vote on the final resolution with the SOGI language intact, five Caribbean countries abstained, Bahamas, Guyana, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Vincent, most likely because of a reference elsewhere in the text to the death penalty and the failure of an amendment to defeat it. Trinidad & Tobago tried to vote too late, but said they intended to vote for the resolution.
The vote for the Singapore amendment can be seen here http://www.iglhrc.org/binary-data/ATTACHMENT/file/000/000/618-1.pdf?utm_source=ISHR+Publications+and+News&utm_campaign=067e973358-RSS_Email_Campaign_General_Assembly&utm_medium=email. However the United Emirates amendments can be seen here and this is where Jamaica voted for deletion of the SOGI reference.http://www.iglhrc.org/binary-data/ATTACHMENT/file/000/000/616-1.pdf?utm_source=ISHR+Publications+and+News&utm_campaign=067e973358-RSS_Email_Campaign_General_Assembly&utm_medium=email
When The United Belize Advocacy Movement entered the arena of hemispheric and regional advocacy we did not imagine we would have sustain our history of advocacy action through the OAS Coalition facilitated currently by Heartland Alliance International,the Caribbean Forum for the Liberation of Genders and Sexuality, the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities, PANCAP and many petitions sites like allout.org and avazz. We have engaged PAHO, PEPFAR at its regional meeting in the Bahamas in 2011 and the Global Commission on HIV and the Law submitting abstracts and comments to their report for the region. We have represented at the UN High Level meeting twice, the last was as part of the Belize UN Delegation.
What makes the UN resolution on Extrajudicial Killing found here http://www.iglhrc.org/binary-data/ATTACHMENT/file/000/000/610-1.pdf, especially important is that there is now visible political acknowledgement that L.G.B.T Citizens in Belize matters. What makes 2012 support important, is that, Belize is the consistent acknowledgement of the Human Rights of its Citizens from 2010 when it first expressed it support after calls were made to the Foreign Ministry. This follows efforts at the OAS since 2008 where Belize has not resisted supportive resolutions that condemns acts of violence and other human rights abuses. We are now in 2012 and have ensured with our Caribbean and Latin American partners that 5 OAS resolutions have passed called Human Rights; Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
The UN resolution on Extrajudicial Killings that included sexual orientation and gender identity, it is our hope will continue to bosom into the next voting period. See here for 2012 photo of voting:
The voting process for the resolution had three votes in the following way:
One on each of two amendments, and one on the full resolution. Belize joined the Bahamas, Barbados and the DR in OPPOSING the deletion of sexual orientation and gender identity from the text. Jamaica and St. Vincent both voted to support the deletion. That amendment failed. The rest of the Caribbean did not vote or abstained. But Trinidad & Tobago, which abstained, took the floor to clarify they did not support inclusion of gender identity in the text.
On the vote on the final resolution with the SOGI language intact, five Caribbean countries abstained, Bahamas, Guyana, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Vincent, most likely because of a reference elsewhere in the text to the death penalty and the failure of an amendment to defeat it. Trinidad & Tobago tried to vote too late, but said they intended to vote for the resolution.
The vote for the Singapore amendment can be seen here http://www.iglhrc.org/binary-data/ATTACHMENT/file/000/000/618-1.pdf?utm_source=ISHR+Publications+and+News&utm_campaign=067e973358-RSS_Email_Campaign_General_Assembly&utm_medium=email. However the United Emirates amendments can be seen here and this is where Jamaica voted for deletion of the SOGI reference.http://www.iglhrc.org/binary-data/ATTACHMENT/file/000/000/616-1.pdf?utm_source=ISHR+Publications+and+News&utm_campaign=067e973358-RSS_Email_Campaign_General_Assembly&utm_medium=email
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