Tag: Trump Administration

Marching for LGBTI human rights

US Human Rights Report leaves out LGBTs

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Although it may be hard to argue that Trump’s foreign policy really is “America first”, it is encouraging to see that his administration is sensibly ignoring the woke causes that fracture society along the lines of victimhood status.

By Iulia-Elena Cazan, C-FAM

The just released U.S. Annual Human Rights Report has omitted references to homosexual/trans. Leading homosexual/trans advocacy group calls the pending report “a travesty and subversion of Congressional intent.”

Every year, the U.S. State Department releases a report assessing the human rights situation in every country. While the report is Congressionally mandated, its scope and focus can change from one U.S. administration to another, depending on the administration’s priorities and interpretation of human rights.

The Washington Post wrote that this year’s “draft reports examined by the Post contain no reference to gender-based violence or violence against LGBTQ+ (sic) people.”

Amanda Klasing, national director of government relations and advocacy at Amnesty International criticized the document for “downplaying” certain human rights violations faced by “marginalized populations, including refugees and asylum seekers, women and girls, Indigenous people, ethnic and religious minorities, and LGBTQI+ (sic) people throughout the world.”

Klasing criticized U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for attempting to “limit the scope” of the report. She says Rubio instructed the drafters of the report “to cut everything not legislatively mandated” and that the “Trump administration has turned this report into yet another tool to obscure facts to push forward anti-rights policy choices.”

Last year’s U.S. Human Rights report, released under the Biden Administration, lists Amnesty International, OutRight International, the International Lesbian and Gay Association – Europe (ILGA-EUROPE), among other groups, as resources on the topic of “Acts of violence, criminalization, and other abuses based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics.” The Biden report maintained a special section for human rights violations based on one’s gender identity and criticized several countries for not allowing homosexual/trans couples to adopt children.

Narrowing the scope of the report and deleting controversial references to rights based on sexual orientation and gender identity is consistent with Trump’s foreign policy, which is opposed to gender ideology and states that gender identity “does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.”

In a statement delivered at an event co-hosted by C-Fam (publisher of Friday Fax) earlier this year, the U.S. representative said that the U.S. mission has engaged in “tough negotiations in a wide variety of U.N. resolutions, fighting against gender ideology, and calling votes if necessary, to advance President Trump’s America First foreign policy.” Since Trump took office, the U.S. Mission to the U.N. has consistently rejected any references to gender ideology in U.N. documents and programs.

References to sexual orientation and gender identity remain highly controversial at the U.N. and are rejected by many UN Member States whose moral, cultural, and religious values stand in opposition to a progressive interpretation of human rights. These countries often adopt an originalist interpretation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and criticize Western countries and some U.N. bodies for extending the UDHR beyond its scope.

According to the Washington Post, a senior State Department official said [this year’s] “Human Rights report focuses on core issues” and that “the Trump administration will bring a new focus to some issues, including freedom of expression.”

By Iulia-Elena Cazan

C-FAM: The Centre for Family & Human Rights was founded in the summer of 1997 in order to monitor and affect the social policy debate at the United Nations and other international institutions. C-Fam is a non-partisan, non-profit research institute dedicated to reestablishing a proper understanding of international law, protecting national sovereignty and the dignity of the human person.

UN Document defeated

Europeans furious the U.S. has blocked new UN document

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The U.S. government has blocked the adoption of a new UN document from the Population Commission over its inclusion of “gender ideology.”

The U.S. government has blocked the adoption of the final agreement of the just-concluded UN population commission over “gender ideology.” This is seen as a loss for the left at the UN, including the European Union. Traditional countries were grateful.

Spencer Chretien, a Trump administration official at the U.S. State Department, expressed frustration that U.S. positions were not incorporated in the final draft. As a result, the Dutch chairman of the commission withdrew the draft agreement from consideration.

In his official statement, Chretien emphasized that the U.S. government rejected “gender ideology extremism” and had rejoined the Geneva Consensus Declaration, which states that “abortion is not an international right” and that the family is the “natural and fundamental group unit of society.” He said the U.S. was committed to “population issues that unite us, not divide us,” including improving maternal health and supporting families.

Chretien said that the U.S. “rejected and denounced” the 2030 Agenda for Development, a fifteen-year agreement of the General Assembly that enshrines a vast set of social, environmental, and climate goals as priorities for all governments. While past UN cooperation schemes adopted broad commitments for international cooperation, the 2030 Agenda proposed a universal political agenda with concrete goals and targets to be pursued by all governments. It has been criticized repeatedly as a creeping towards global government.

European Support for UN Document

European countries, who are most invested in the 2030 agenda, complained bitterly that the Trump administration and the government of Argentina under Javier Milei are no longer willing to reaffirm the 2030 Agenda. Some countries that attacked the Trump administration said that they interpreted the 2030 agreement as including abortion rights and gender ideology under the rubric of “sexual and reproductive health.”

A German delegate complained about the U.S. position calling it an “attempt to erode our vision for future.” He said protecting “bodily autonomy”, including through “sexual and reproductive health and rights” was central to this vision and pledged to continue to promote abortion and gender ideology through government funding for non-governmental organizations.

A Danish delegate said Denmark would continue to promote “sexual and reproductive health and rights for adolescents”, clarifying further that “this includes access to abortion” as well as “comprehensive sexuality education.”

A delegate from France expressly said that sexual and reproductive health language “includes a right to abortion” and that it was foundational for development. He also promised to continue a feminist foreign policy.

Delegates from several traditional countries, thanked the chairman of the commission for withdrawing the draft agreement with the controversial language. They expressed opposition to gender ideology and abortion rights.

Nigeria said these were “major red lines.” Burundi lamented that the final draft of the agreement did not mention the family at all. The delegate said this was not acceptable because, “the future of our societies and our ability to develop depends above all on strong families.”

A Holy See official blamed the failure of the commission to reach an agreement on the “inordinate focus” on sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights issues, explaining that they have always been controversial. He encouraged “true respect for sovereign states with regard to sensitive issues.” He also responded directly to the delegations who claimed abortion was an international right, explaining that such statements “explicitly violated” previous UN population agreements.

By Stefano Gennarini, J.D.

C-FAM: The Centre for Family & Human Rights was founded in the summer of 1997 in order to monitor and affect the social policy debate at the United Nations and other international institutions. C-Fam is a non-partisan, non-profit research institute dedicated to reestablishing a proper understanding of international law, protecting national sovereignty and the dignity of the human person.