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At UN Gays Added to Executions Resolution, US Overall Abstains

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 21 -- Lesbians and gays were added Tuesday to a UN resolution against extrajudicial executions from which the US abstained.

  In the run up to the vote, not only the United Arab Emirates for the Arab Group and Tajikistan for the Organization of the Islamic Conference but also Benin for the Africa Group urged that the LGBT amendment be opposed.

   Zimbabwe went further, openly referring to bestiality and saying “we won't have it foisted on us!” To the surprise of some, both South Africa and Rwanda said they would vote for the LGBT amendment, both based on evidence that gays and lesbians are disproportionately targeted.

Rick Barton of the US Mission to the UN introduced the amendment, and did not mention that the US would in fact abstain from the resolution barring extrajudicial executions, related it's reported to criticism of the US' use of drones in Pakistan and elsewhere.

The vote on the LGBT amendment was 93 for, 55 against and 27 abstaining. With it added, the overall extrajudicial executions resolution passed 122 for, 1 against, 62 abstaining - including the US.

Prior to the vote, Inner City Press asked the acting Deputy Spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon if he had any guidance for member states on the LGBT amendment. No, spokesman Farhan Haq said.

In other voting, a resolution for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty passed 109 for moratorium, the US and 40 more against it, and 35 abstaining. The Defamation of Religion resolution passed 79 for, 67 against and 40 abstaining.

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As US at UN Selectively Touts Its Advocacy for Gays, Positions on Executions Questioned

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 10, updated below -- When a reference to protect lesbians and gays was removed from a draft resolution against arbitrary executions in the UN General Assembly's Third Committee, the US Mission was constrained in fighting it, since they wouldn't vote for the overall resolution due to continued use of drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere, according to advocates.

  But early on December 10, the US Mission sent some reporters a notice that Ambassador Susan Rice would at 1:15 be announcing a US sponsored amendment to be introduced in the full General Assembly. This early notice did not address the US' overall position on the resolution against arbitrary executions.

As Ambassador Rice walked into the Security Council at 10:30 on Friday morning for meetings on Iran and Haiti, Inner City Press asked if the US would vote for the resolution on executions.

 Not getting an answer, Inner City Press put the same question to US Mission staff, along with questioning the seemingly selective distribution of the early notice of Rice's 1:15 appearance.


Susan Rice at beginning of December, position on execution resolution not shown

  The response was that the Mission would be issuing a formal notice. But what about the US position on the resolution against executions? Watch this site.

Update of 1:10 pm -- Susan Rice spoke to the Press, about Haiti, at 1 pm. As Inner City Press began to ask about the above, Ambassador Rice said she had to go make her presentation. Her spokesman stayed and said that while the US will probably as in previous years and as in committee abstain from the resolution against arbitrary executions -- due among other things to what he called mischaracterizations of international humanitarian law -- the US feels it has made progress with the sponsors and “aspires” to join consensus on the resolution in two years' time.

Inner City Press asked for the US Mission's response to advocates' complaint that because of the US not voting for the resolution, its campaign to have LGBT language included was undermined. The response is that the US Mission hopes that such advocates throw their support behind this new effort to have the language put in during the process before the full General Assembly. We'll see.

  Ambassador Rice's Haiti answers we will report this afternoon. Watch this site.

 Click here for an Inner City Press YouTube channel video, mostly UN Headquarters footage, about civilian deaths in Sri Lanka.

Click here for Inner City Press' March 27 UN debate

Click here for Inner City Press March 12 UN (and AIG bailout) debate

Click here for Inner City Press' Feb 26 UN debate

Click here for Feb. 12 debate on Sri Lanka http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/17772?in=11:33&out=32:56

Click here for Inner City Press' Jan. 16, 2009 debate about Gaza

Click here for Inner City Press' review-of-2008 UN Top Ten debate

Click here for Inner City Press' December 24 debate on UN budget, Niger

Click here from Inner City Press' December 12 debate on UN double standards

Click here for Inner City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics

and this October 17 debate, on Security Council and Obama and the UN.

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These reports are usually also available through Google News and on Lexis-Nexis.

Click here for a Reuters AlertNet piece by this correspondent about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click here for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali National Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an undefined trust fund.  Video Analysis here

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