Negotiating Sexual Rights and Sexual Orientation at the UN1
United Nations Negotiating Sexual Rights and Sexual Orientation at the UN1 Françoise Girard United Nations Information Service* Introduction On September 8, 1995, in the main plenary hall at the United Nations Fourth World Confer- ence on Women in Beijing, China, a group of 35 women from the Lesbian Caucus unfurled a large banner from a balcony. The banner read: Lesbian Rights are Human Rights. The action was not without its own drama; the banner was at first unfurled upside down and the women had to quickly turn it around and drop it again before UN security guards arrived on the scene. The guards removed the banner and the women were ordered from the hall. Two of them were held and questioned by UN security before being released. But everyone in the plenary, including government delegates from 189 countries, had got the message. *Photo of the last plenary session of the Beijing Conference (1995) when sexual orientation was debated. 1 Sources for this chapter include interviews with several of those directly involved in negotiations for the Fourth World Conference on Women and at the Commission on Human Rights, speeches made during the negotiations, UN documents, letters sent by governments stating their posi- tions, leaflets and other materials distributed by non-governmental organizations at these negotiations, journal articles and press accounts. My thanks go to those who shared documents, answered queries and agreed to be interviewed for this chapter, in particular: Berit Austveg, Hossam Bahgat, Suki Beavers, Gloria Careaga, Sonia Correa, John Fisher, Susana Fried, Adrienne Germain, Brigid Inder, Gerd Johnsson-Latham, Barbara Klugman, Ellen Marshall, Frederico Meyer and Rosalind Petchesky.
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