Why Won't the UN Agenda for Inclusive Cities Recognize LGBTQ Citizens? Francesca Perry - The Guardian
go to original October 19, 2016

Canada has led the efforts to include LGBTQ rights in the New Urban Agenda (Xinhua/Barcroft Images)

“There cannot be a democratic and inclusive city that does not consider LGBTQ groups as first-class citizens, with equal rights and freedoms. It’s an essential issue. It’s not important, it’s essential,” declares Barcelona mayor Ada Colau outside the Habitat III grounds in Quito.

Her statement is in response to the fact that the United Nation’s New Urban Agenda, a manifesto for better cities meant to influence global urban policy, and which is being agreed at the Habitat III conference in Quito this week, has not acknowledged LGBTQ rights. This is not an omission that has gone unnoticed.

Canada, backed by the European Union, the United States and Mexico, as well as Argentina and Colombia, has for months pushed for including the recognition of LGBTQ people in a list of “vulnerable groups” in the New Urban Agenda who should not be discriminated against.

But during the negotiations over the agenda, a group of up to 17 countries led by Belarus – and including Russia, Egypt, Qatar, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Iran – blocked the inclusion of LGBTQ rights in the agenda, requesting their removal from a list of groups the document condemns violence against.

In a world where same sex relationships are illegal in 76 countries around the world and punishable by death in seven, recognition of LGBTQ rights in such a central UN document would be a powerful move.

In a packed room at Habitat III, the United States secretary of housing and urban development (HUD), Julian Castro, explains that the US, along with other countries, “have fought hard to get an outright protection of LGBTQ rights in the New Urban agenda – and we’re going to keep pushing. The 21st century will belong to those nations which embrace freedom and equality for everyone.”

Read the rest at The Guardian

Related: Consular Diplomacy, Policies and LGBT Rights - Lessons from Mexico (The Hill)

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