The United Nations Security Council(UNSC) has discussed LGBT rights for the
first time in its 70 year existence, in what the US ambassador
described as a "small but historic step".
The council, responsible for maintaining international peace and security, used a meeting at its New York headquarters to discuss the plight of members of the LGBT community in Iraq and Syria.
United States ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, said: “It's about time, 70 years after the creation of the UN, that the fate of LGBT persons who fear for their lives around the world is taking centre stage".
All 193 UN member states were invited to the informal meeting.Attendance at the meeting was not mandatory for all 15 security council members and Angola and Chad were not present
The meeting heard from men who had faced threats of violence and death in their home countries because of their sexuality.
An Iraqi man, identified only as Adnan, spoke to the council by phone from an undisclosed location
He explained that the self-proclaimed ISIS targeted anyone suspected of being gay.
He said: "In my society, being gay means death and when [Islamic State] kills gays most people are happy because they think we are evil, and [Islamic State] gets a good credit for that.
"My own family turned against me when [Islamic State] was after me.
"If [Islamic State] didn't get me, members of my family would have done it."
He added that IS hunted down gay people by using the phone and Facebook contacts of those they had already captured.
Subhi Nahas, who fled Syria and came to the US, said that the country’s president Bashar Assad's government "launched a campaign accusing all dissidents of being homosexuals" following the Arab Spring uprisings.
The council, responsible for maintaining international peace and security, used a meeting at its New York headquarters to discuss the plight of members of the LGBT community in Iraq and Syria.
United States ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, said: “It's about time, 70 years after the creation of the UN, that the fate of LGBT persons who fear for their lives around the world is taking centre stage".
All 193 UN member states were invited to the informal meeting.Attendance at the meeting was not mandatory for all 15 security council members and Angola and Chad were not present
The meeting heard from men who had faced threats of violence and death in their home countries because of their sexuality.
An Iraqi man, identified only as Adnan, spoke to the council by phone from an undisclosed location
He explained that the self-proclaimed ISIS targeted anyone suspected of being gay.
He said: "In my society, being gay means death and when [Islamic State] kills gays most people are happy because they think we are evil, and [Islamic State] gets a good credit for that.
"My own family turned against me when [Islamic State] was after me.
"If [Islamic State] didn't get me, members of my family would have done it."
He added that IS hunted down gay people by using the phone and Facebook contacts of those they had already captured.
Subhi Nahas, who fled Syria and came to the US, said that the country’s president Bashar Assad's government "launched a campaign accusing all dissidents of being homosexuals" following the Arab Spring uprisings.
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