Spousal Benefits for Gays at U.N. Challenged

[rodbarnett]

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 16, 2004; Page A15

UNITED NATIONS, March 15 -- A bloc of more than 50 Islamic states, backed by the Vatican, sought today to halt U.N. efforts to extend spousal benefits to partners of some gay employees.

The initiative came less than two months after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan moved to award benefits to partners of gay employees who come from countries where such benefits are provided, such as Belgium and the Netherlands.

The same group is also preparing to oppose a resolution, sponsored by Brazil and supported by the European Union, at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva that calls for nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, diplomats said. The Vatican and other conservatives maintain that the Brazilian resolution and Annan's new benefits policy would provide gay people with protections never envisioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

A U.N. bulletin outlining Annan's new policy says: "A marriage recognized as valid under the law of the country of nationality of a staff member will qualify that staff member to receive the entitlements provided for eligible family members." It also asserts that "a legally recognized domestic partnership" will qualify U.N. staffers for similar benefits.

The United Nations has recognized polygamy, a common practice in the Islamic world, as a legitimate form of marriage and permits employees to divide their benefits among more than one wife. But the decision to expand that right to same-sex partners has fueled intense opposition.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61437-2004Mar15.html

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Interesting

Al-Qaeda and the GOP agree on this issue.

Strange bedfellows. (But no marriage!)

--bkl