The United Misanthropes

The Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations reads like a Utopian dream. But when the body actively chooses to move away from the most important part of that dream, one has to wonder why we, as humans, choose to support them.

In particular, I am talking about the part of the preamble relating to human rights.

to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is possibly the most complete listing of all the rights a human can expect merely because they are human. But on Tuesday, November 16th, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution to remove an important reference to the protection of gays from violent execution merely on the grounds of their sexual orientation. The resolution, passed narrowly in a 79-70 vote, will, in the words of British LGBT activist Peter Tatchell "gives a de facto green light to the on-going murder of LGBT people by homophobic regimes, death squads and vigilantes".

I have to say that I agree. This is a huge step backwards in the fight for human rights, not just for LGBT people, but all minority groups across the world. If we can allow countries who are ruled by a religious or idealist government, no matter how they were elected, to change the way the group we have created to protect us from discrimination and violence works, that entirely defeats the purpose of the body.

The United Nations has, here and many times in the past, ineffective and, quite frankly, sometimes contradictory to their own mission statement. This resolution comes as Uganda is considering making homosexuality a capital crime and many nations continue their constant assault on human rights.

(more information can be found at my news outlet of choice, Reuters)

I promise I wont make all of my blog posts political, this was just in my news feed this morning and so I decided to comment on it. Nice way to start a personal blog eh :P

Anyway, I am Alex, I write for me because even I am not narcissistic enough to believe that many people will care. Eventually this blog will find a focus, until then, it will just be whatever the hell I feel like making it. I will try to update at least every other day, hopefully daily.

Until next time