Anti-gay laws violate global pacts: U.N. rights chief

[okaawhatever]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - A legal ban on same-sex marriage in Nigeria, Africa's largest country, violates international accords and could bring mob law against gays onto its streets, the United Nations' human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Friday.

The comments in the Nigerian capital Abuja from the outspoken Pillay, a former top judge in South Africa, came as in Geneva Russia and Islamic countries urged more global focus on protecting traditional family life.

Pillay told her largely Nigerian audience that the country's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community was "living in fear", since the loosely-drafted law, not yet put into effect, had gone onto the statute books.

"The law violates international law in that it is discriminatory and seriously impinges on the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly," she declared.

It could also "lead to human rights defenders advocating for the rights of LGBT people receiving draconian prison sentences," Pillay said, in a clear reference to phrasing in the measure that bars promotion of homosexuality.

U.N. human rights officials were already getting reports of widespread arrests of gays and lesbians in some parts of Nigeria, of physical attacks "including by mobs," and a rise in blackmail and extortion, the U.N. rights chief said.

Continued at Link

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/14/us-un-rights-gays-idUSBREA2D1ML20140314

[William769]

1. That list seems to be growing.

Russia's going to fit right in with those other third world Countries.

[cprise]

2. India recently banned homosexuality outright.

But there is no US tantrum because there is no fossil fuel or water there to put under the control of a western corporation. However, India is considered an ally of the US, like a number of other anti-gay countries.

[William769]

3. Statement still stands true.

India's right there with them.