LGBT rights as the 9th MDG?

For the last two decades, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights movement have been the focus of human rights discussion. Since the establishment of the United Nations (UN) in 1945, sexual orientation and gender identity issues had not been discussed until December 2008, when France delegation brought up the issue in the United Nations General Assembly meeting (Macfarquhar, 2008). Currently, there is no section in MDGs that specifically aimed to stop discrimination and criminalization of LGBT person. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (2011),  76 countries of the UN’s 193 member states still criminalizing homosexuality (some with the death penalty), it is critical for the world leaders to do something at this critical moment to address this human rights violation issues.

To include LGBT rights as a part of MDGs is important because there is a strong pattern of violence and discrimination against LGBT individuals around the world. According to Human Rights Council (2011) report on LGBT discriminations, there are numerous cases on violations of human rights by UN member states towards LGBT community. According to the report, the violations include, but are not limited to – “killings, rape and physical attacks, torture, arbitrary detention, the denial of rights to assembly, expression and information, and discrimination in employment, health and education”. For example, in Iran, more than 6,000 gay men and lesbians have been executed for homosexuality acts since 1979.The number of cases for LGBT violence and discrimination usually are understated due to the fear of punishments by the authority and lack of study that have been done to analyze this issue. Furthermore, discrimination towards LGBT individuals from seeking medical services occur constantly and this deter the progress to combat HIV/AIDS, which is one of the goals for MDGs.

World leaders and major NGO groups have often oversaw violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The UN agencies, especially Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights and other international groups must ensure that the rights expressed in Universal Declaration of Human Rights are applied to the LGBT community as well, which has suffered from discrimination and violent oppression throughout history.

There is still a lot of work that need to be done to improve LGBT rights and to abolish LGBT discrimination around the world. Certainly, United Nations and its agencies play an important role to stop the discrimination towards LGBT individuals. So, say yes to LGBT rights as the 9th MDGs!