U.N.'s 'historic' gay rights resolution

People celebrate during a gay pride march this month in Strasbourg, France.U.N. Human Rights Council resolution passes 23-19, with three abstentionsSome African nations criticize South Africa, which introduced the gay rights measureThe move "puts the issue squarely on the U.N.'s agenda," a U.S. official says"This is really a critical beginning of a universal recognition of a new set of rights," she says

(CNN) -- In what the U.S. State Department is calling a "historic step," the U.N. Human Rights Council passed a resolution Friday supporting equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation.

The resolution, introduced by South Africa, is the first-ever U.N. resolution on the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons.

It passed with 23 votes in favor, 19 opposed and three abstentions amid strong criticism of South Africa by some African nations.

Suzanne Nossel, deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations, told CNN, "It really is a key part in setting a new norm that gay rights are human rights and that that has to be accepted globally."

"It talks about the violence and discrimination that people of LGBT persuasion experience around the world," she said, "and that those issues ... need to be taken seriously. It calls for reporting on what's going on, where people are being discriminated against, the violence that is taking place, and it really puts the issue squarely on the U.N.'s agenda going forward."

Divided opinion continues among some countries about whether the time has come to take up gay rights in the U.N. forum, Nossel said, "so this resolution is really significant as far as gaining widespread support for doing just that."

The State Department lobbied intensively for the resolution, and Nossel said the United States was pleased to see African leadership, from South Africa in particular, as well as strong support from South America, Colombia and Brazil.

The resolution also will commission the first-ever U.N. report on the challenges that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people face around the globe. Nossel said the Obama administration hopes it will "open a broader international discussion on how to best promote and protect the human rights of LGBT persons."

In March the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a statement, supported by 85 countries, on gay rights called "Ending Violence Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity."

Friday's vote "marks a victory for defenders of human rights," said Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "It sends a clear message that abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity must end."

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made gay rights a key focus of the State Department's human rights agenda, expressing her view that "gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights."

At a gay pride event this month at the State Department, Clinton said, "Men and women are harassed, beaten, subjected to sexual violence, even killed, because of who they are and whom they love. Some are driven from their homes or countries, and many who become refugees confront new threats in their countries of asylum. In some places, violence against the LGBT community is permitted by law and inflamed by public calls to violence; in others, it persists insidiously behind closed doors."

Nossel told CNN, "it's not like discrimination or violence are going to end overnight" because of the U.N. resolution, "but now ... when there are proposals in parliaments or legislatures around the world to illegalize gay activity or repress people because of their sexual orientation, opponents can point to this and say, 'Hey, the U.N. has spoken out, there is a resolution that rejects this squarely.'

"That is the way these international norms are built," she said. "It's not from scratch. On women's rights, on minority rights, it builds up over time. So this is really a critical beginning of a universal recognition of a new set of rights that forms part of the international system."

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CNN

UK, France build case for UN resolution against Syria (The Christian Science Monitor)

Berlin – With thousands of Syrians fleeing to Turkey in fear of more attacks by government forces, Europe is intensifying diplomatic pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad to stop using violence against civilians.

Supported by Germany and Portugal, the UK and France have drafted a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria’s suppression of pro-democracy protests but not calling for military action or additional sanctions.

While Europe is again taking the lead on rallying international response to a Middle East uprising, many analysts say the West is cautious about moving too strongly against Syria because of its strategic importance in the region. What's more, many say, Assad will continue to act with impunity as long as he feels that the West considers him as part of an eventual solution to ending the violence there.

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“Libya has oil, but it has little strategic importance. Syria is a pivotal state, it has immense strategic importance in the region,” says Jean-Francois Daguzan, a Middle East expert at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris. "Regime change in Libya will not change the political landscape of the whole of North Africa. Regime change in Syria will affect the situation of Israel, of Lebanon, of Iran, of Turkey even.”

Mr. Daguzan said Western governments are also worried about what could follow Assad. "What kind of policy would a government of the Sunni majority in Syria stand for? No one knows. Europe’s options in Syria are very limited and a military intervention is out of the question.”

The draft UN resolution put forward by the UK and France asks for political reforms and the release of political prisoners. But it does not authorize concrete action by the international community and it stresses that any solution to this crisis has to include the Syrian authorities.

“Syria was at the center of the Western policy of engagement in the last two or three years,” said Nadim Shehadi, Syria expert with the London-based think tank Chatham House. “A lot of people invested political capital into arguing for engagement with Assad. And the regime is very clever in blurring people’s vision about what could happen. European policymakers are traumatized by Iraq and Libya, so when Assad paints a picture of a bloody sectarian war developing out of this uprising, they are not willing to take that risk.”

But Mr. Shehadi says that for the Assad regime to consider a change of course, the West needs to make a strong statement against its actions.

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“Syria needs a clear message,” he says. “A message by the West that we do not see Assad as the future of Syria, and as the guarantor of stability in the region. Ambiguity is interpreted by him as a sign of support, as a sign that the West cannot see life beyond him. That is a license to kill, a carte blanche to crack down on the opposition. Without a clear message from the international community, people in Syria are afraid to go that last step and get rid of Assad.”

More than 1,000 Syrians crossed the border to Turkey within the past 24 hours, according to a Turkish official. The refugees say they anticipate a violent crackdown by troops closing in on the northwest border town of Jisr al-Shugur, where earlier in the week 120 members of the security forces were killed by armed gangs, according to the Syrian authorities. Turkish media report that the government in Ankara is preparing for an influx of up to 1 million refugees.

The events in northwestern Syria mark a climax in the unrest that started three months ago and cost more than 1,300 lives, according to human rights activists.

The initiative for a UN resolution is supported by the US, but opposed by Russia and China. A vote on the resolution is expected in the next few days.

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