*Women's rights: universal and indivisible

At the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in September, there was a debate about whether to include in the Platform of Action the right for women not to be discriminated against on the grounds of their sexuality. In the final outcome, the conference did not include "sexual orientation" in the platform. Below is an edited version of a statement delivered by PALESA BEVERLEY DITSIE from the Gay and Lesbian International Association on September 13. It is a great honour to address this body on behalf of the International Gay and Lesbian Association, and over 50 other organisations. I am from Soweto, South Africa, where I have lived all my life and experienced both tremendous joy and pain within my community. I come from a country that has recently had an opportunity to start afresh, an opportunity to strive for a true democracy where the people govern and where emphasis is placed on the human rights of all people. The constitution of South Africa prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, gender, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture or language. In his opening parliamentary speech in Cape Town on April 9, 1994, President Nelson Mandela received resounding applause when he declared that never again would anyone be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognises the "inherent dignity and ... the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family", and guarantees the protection of the fundamental rights and freedoms of all people, "without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language ... or other status". Yet every day, in countries around the world, lesbians suffer violence, harassment and discrimination because of their sexual orientation. Their basic human rights — such as the right to life, to bodily integrity, to freedom of association and expression — are violated. Women who love women are fired from their jobs; forced into marriages; beaten and murdered in their homes and on the streets; and have their children taken away by hostile courts. Some commit suicide due to the isolation and stigma that they experience within their families, religious institutions and their broader community. These and other abuses are documented in a recently released report by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Committee on sexual orientation and women's human rights, as well as in reports by Amnesty International. Yet the majority of these abuses have been difficult to document because, although lesbians exist everywhere in the world, we have been marginalised and silenced and remain invisible in most of the world. In 1994, the United Nations Human Rights Committee declared that discrimination based on sexual orientation violated the right to non-discrimination and the right to privacy guaranteed in the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights. Several countries have passed legislation prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. If this conference on women is to address the concerns of all women, it must similarly recognise that discrimination based on sexual orientation is a violation of basic human rights. Paragraphs 48 and 226 of the Platform for Action recognise that women face particular barriers in their lives because of many factors, including sexual orientation. However, the term "sexual orientation" is currently in brackets [indicating opposition by some countries]. If these words are omitted from the relevant paragraphs, the platform will stand as one more symbol of the discrimination that lesbians face, and of the lack of recognition of our very existence. No woman can determine the direction of her own life without the ability to determine her sexuality. Sexuality is an integral, deeply ingrained part of every human being's life and should not be subject to debate or coercion. Anyone who is truly committed to women's human rights must recognise that every woman has the right to determine her sexuality free of discrimination and oppression. I urge you to make this a conference for all women, regardless of their sexual orientation, and to recognise in the Platform for Action that lesbian rights are women's rights and that women's rights are universal, inalienable and indivisible human rights.