By Robert Evans
GENEVA Feb 28 (Reuters) – Archbishop of Canterbury
Rowan Williams, spiritual head of the global Anglican communion,
stepped on Tuesday into a row which is flaring at the U.N. Human
Rights Council over the persecution of gays and lesbians.
Williams, who has faced strong opposition from parts of his
own church especially in Africa for his stance on gays, did not
directly refer to the current controversy at the Council,
according to the text of a speech prepared for delivery at the
Geneva-based World Council of Churches (WCC).
However, he said laws against sexual minorities were
equivalent to racism, and warned that legal regulation of
consensual sexual conduct “can be both unworkable and open to
appalling abuse – intimidation and blackmail”.
A panel of the U.N. rights body will consider action in
Geneva on Wednesday aimed at halting persecution of gays and
lesbians around the world, despite fierce condemnation from
Muslim and some African countries.
A report prepared for the gathering by U.N. High
Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says homosexuals and
bisexuals face execution in at least five countries and 76
nations had laws criminalising gay sex.
They also accounted disproportionately for torture cases in
jails around the globe, said the report which was mandated by a
council resolution backed by Western and a range of developing
states that was passed narrowly last June.
But in a statement in advance of the panel, Pakistan said
the 57-nation Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) opposed
the convening of the panel and would not accept any
recommendations that it might issue.
The Pakistani statement, in a letter to the president of the
council, said “abnormal sexual behaviour” was an outcome of
personal behaviour and preferences “having nothing to do with
fundamental human rights”.
Continued…
