Sonke Gender Justice claims that with the support of the many organizations it supports financially sent the following letter to Minister of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) to influence the governments vote in the UN. This letter was also made available to the maravipost. The maravipost does not endorse the contents of this letter but wanted our readers to understand how much West Media has invested in this cause.
The Minister
International Relations and Co-operation
Pretoria
South Africa
ATTENTION: Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane
Dear Minister
RE: The Human Rights Council 27TH SESSION, September 2014:
Resolution: Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity [A/HRC/27/L27]
On behalf of the undersigned organisations, we write to draw your urgent attention to Resolution A/HRC/27/L27 tabled at the Human Rights Council on Thursday 18 September by Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and Brazil and to urge and insist you act in keeping with your human rights obligations in this regard by voting YES to the Resolution in its current tabled version. The operational paragraphs call for a minimum of a follow up report to the Report of the High Commissioner of November 2011 on Violence and Discrimination on the basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and for follow up reports every two years.
As you know, this is, more than three years later, a follow up to 17/19 led by South Africa, and is important as a way to keep dialogue at the Human Rights Council sustained and to ensure that the issue does not fall off the agenda of the Council. Here on the African continent, many of our fellow activists, colleagues and fellow human rights defenders view this Resolution as a way to draw the attention of states to an issue that forces many into an unnecessary and unjust confrontation with the law and criminalises sex between consenting adults with a wide range of consequences for our right to development.