Muslim countries, Russia block LGBT group participation in UN AIDS conference
A group of Muslim countries have blocked some LGBT organizations from attending an upcoming United Nations conference on AIDS, spurring criticism from Western countries and the international body.
The countries, which include the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as Russia, Tanzania and Cameroon, did not provide a reason for wanting to bar the groups. The conference is set to be held in New York in June to strategize how to end AIDS as a public health threat, one of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The U.N. General Assembly operates by consensus, and a simple majority has the ability to block participation in U.N. events by non-governmental organizations that don’t have accreditation from the body.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power condemned the move in a letter to General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark.
"Given that transgender people are 49 times more likely to be living with HIV than the general population, their exclusion from the high-level meeting will only impede global progress in combating the HIV/AIDS pandemic," Power wrote.
Twenty-two organizations are set to be excluded from the meeting. That list of groups as well as the list of countries that voted against their participation are supposed to be kept secret according to U.N. protocol, but both have been leaked. Many of the groups come from parts of the world where homosexuality is deeply stigmatized and sometimes criminalized, including Russia and Cameroon.
Approximately 560 NGOs from around the world are set to participate in the AIDS conference to begin on June 8.
UNAIDS said it was “crucial” that the conference included “the voices of people living with HIV and people most affected by the epidemic, including women and girls, sex workers, people who use drugs, gay men and other men who have sex with men and transgender people. “
“The High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS should be guided by the principles on which the successes of the AIDS response are built—inclusion, participation and dignity,” UNAIDS said in a statement. “As enshrined in the United Nations Charter, the doors of the United Nations should be open to all.”
U.N. General Secretary Ban Ki-moon has championed LGBT rights within the international body, moving in 2014 to recognize same-sex unions of U.N. staff so they could receive benefits. A group of countries, including Russia and some Muslim nations, tried but failed to block the move.
This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 1:11 PM with the headline "Muslim countries, Russia block LGBT group participation in UN AIDS conference."