Equal rights for LGBT people are now more than ever on the agenda of the United Nations’ Commission for Human Rights!

Last year (2004) more than 45,000 people signed ILGA’s petition in support of the “Brazilian” resolution, the first resolution introduced in the UN that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation. Brazil, the country who first presented the resolution, decided, after strong resistance to the motion in 2003 and 2004, to postpone discussion on the text until this year’s session of the UNCHR. It is our hope that the Brazilian government does indeed reintroduce its resolution, even though the latest news coming from Brasilia is that this will not happen.

Last Spring in 2004, the UN was witness to the largest ever delegation of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people in its history at its Geneva headquarters in Switzerland. This year, ILGA will once again work with a large coalition of international organisations to bring together a large group of activists from all over the world to lobby the UNCHR for equal rights for LGBT people. This year we will be present from April 2 to April 17th, 2005.

We have once again requested to meet with the Chair of the UNCHR in order to hand the petition to him and make him aware of our concern that equal rights for LGBT people will once again be ignored by the United Nations. However, there is a strong possibility that our rights will once again be denied by religious groups supported by Islamic countries, the Vatican and right-wing religious fundamentalists in the United States who are already actively collaborating against the resolution. For these reasons we need your support now more than ever!

You can do the following to help us fight your rights in the UN this year:

• Visit the updated version of our site in support of the “Brazilian Resolution” at: http://www.brazilianresolution.com and sign the petition to support it; and don’t forget to encourage your friends to sign it too!

• Make a donation to ILGA
Bringing activists from all four corners of the Earth to Geneva to lobby the UN costs a lot of money. The more resources we have the stronger our presence and our voice will be! Help us to continue our fight for equal rights for LGBT people in the UN and around the world. Visit our site at: http://www.ilga.org  for more information.

Thanks for your support!

Sincerely,

Stephen Barris
Communications Officer, ILGA