• Mauritania allows slavery. According to a recent report by the Guardian, “up to 800,000 people in a nation of 3.5 million remain chattels,” with power and wealth overwhelmingly concentrated among lighter-skinned Moors, “leaving slave-descended darker-skinned Moors and black Africans on the edges of society.
• Pakistan turns a blind eye to acid attacks against women, and continues to sentence Christians and minority Muslims to death for blasphemy, including its recent confirmation of Asia Bibi’s verdict.
• Uganda‘s president this year signed into law its ‘Anti-Homosexuality Act,’ one of the harshest in the world, imposing life imprisonment against gays in some cases.
• Zimbabwe continues to harass and intimidate human rights dissidents.

“When the criminals are made the judges, when the arsonists are named as fire-fighters, it’s a travesty of justice. These countries will now exercise power over human rights groups within the world body, and will try to silence their voices,” said Neuer.
“Tragically, the UN’s election today of regimes such as Mauritania — where there are hundreds of thousands living in slavery — sends a message that crass politics trumps basic human rights. The UN is letting down millions of victims around the globe who look to the world body for vital protection,” said Neuer.
ECOSOC’s Power Over UN Human Rights Bodies

• Under the UN Charter, ECOSOC is the sole principal organ mandated to adopt resolutions for the purpose of “promoting respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.”
• The elected regimes will now play a major role in choosing members of the Commission on the Status of Women, the executive of UN Women, and UNICEF, which protects children’s rights.
• ECOSOC is the body that accredits and oversees human rights groups at the UN, deciding who can participate at the UN Human Rights Council. The dominant influence of non-democracies has often led to the rejection or expulsion of human rights groups that dare to criticize China, Cuba or other repressive UN member states, and they have often barred gay rights NGOs.”
• Recent ECOSOC annual sessions debated resolutions on the treatment of prisoners, Internet freedom, discrimination, gender equality and female genital mutilation.
• ECOSOC decides which nations will sit on, among others, the UN Commission for Social Development, the Commission on the Status of Women, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Executive Board of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

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Jacqueline Kasha, FARUG Coordinator and close associate of murdered activist David Kato, will discuss her fight for LGBT rights in Uganda

Source: Geneva Summit for Human Rights, Tolerance and Democracy (https://www.genevasummit.org)
Date: 24 February 2011

GENEVA – On March 15, 2011, Ugandan LGBT activist and human rights defender Jacqueline Kasha will join other world-famous dissidents as a speaker at the third annual Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, organized by UN Watch, Freedom House, Ibuka and 17 other human rights NGOs. The conference is expected to propose a draft resolution in support of Kasha’s struggle to the UN Human Rights Council, which will be holding its annual session across the street.

While many African countries openly discriminate against their gay citizens, Uganda has gained special notoriety for its “Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” a proposed law that seeks to strip Uganda’s LGBT community of the few rights they still possess.

Homosexuality is already outlawed in Uganda. Yet the new bill — which Amnesty International describes as “a how-to manual for abhorrent human rights violations” — would introduce the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” as well as prison sentences for failing to report others known to be gay. The bill targets individuals, companies, and NGOs who support LGBT rights.

Kasha is the director of Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), the only organization dedicated exclusively to attaining equal rights for lesbian, bisexual, intersex and transgender women in Uganda. She is also a member of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), which advocates for LGBT Ugandans.

Kasha is on the front lines of the fight for gay rights in Uganda, and the dangers are real. Kasha was one of 100 high-profile LGBT Ugandans targeted in an article in the Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone, which published their names, addresses and pictures under the headline of “Hang Them.”

While Kasha successfully sued the tabloid to stop publishing the identities of gay Ugandans, triumph turned to tragedy when David Kato, her co-plaintiff and fellow SMUG member, was murdered on January 26.

Violence, harassment, and intimidation of gay activists are common in Africa. Yet the murder shocked the world. International condemnation ensued, along with calls for increased rights and protections for LGBT Ugandans.

Nevertheless, within Uganda itself, Kato’s death failed to change public opinion. Preachers and media figures praised the murder. The Uganda Human Rights Commission kept its distance and its silence. Death threats against Kasha and other activists only increased.

Facing constant fear for her life, Kasha continues her brave work in defense of LGBT rights in Uganda, enduring harassment, insults and attacks for her belief that the LGBT community of Uganda deserves basic human rights and freedoms.

Admission to the March 15 Geneva conference is free, and the public and media are invited to attend. For accreditation, program and schedule information, please visit https://www.genevasummit.org.

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