PRESS RELEASE

ECOSOS Council vote grants consultative status to ILGA

Geneva, 25 July 2011

With 30 votes in favour (India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Republic of Korea, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary), 13 against (Iraq, Morocco, Namibia, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Egypt, Ghana) and 6 abstentions (Guatemala, Mauritius, Philipines, Rwanda, Bahamas, Ivory
Coast) the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) granted today consultative status to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA). ECOSOC consultative status allows NGOs to attend UN conferences and meetings, submit written statements and reports, make oral interventions, and host panels in UN buildings, thus representing a fundamental tool for an NGO like ILGA with more than 700 member organisations in all continents to do work on LGBTI human rights within
the UN system.

ILGA was the first international LGBTI organisation to get ECOSOC consultative status in 1993, but lost it the following year due to the presence of groups advocating the abolition of laws of consent. ILGA has applied to regain the status ever since, following the expulsion of the above mentioned groups from its membership and after amending its constitution to state clearly its commitment against child abuse, but a small group of countries sponsoring homophobia had been able to influence the votes in the UN NGO Committee examining the applications for a long time. In the meantime, many ILGA members like LBL Denmark, COC The Netherlands, FELGT Spain, LSVD Germany, ABGLT Brazil, IGLHRC US, and Ilga-Europe were able to obtain the status by having the negative recommendation of the NGO Committee overturned in the ECOSOC Council, as it has happened in the case of ILGA today.

"This is a historic day for our organisation, which heals a 17-year-old wound said co-Secretary General Renato Sabbadini, in Geneva for the occasion and we want to thank all, really all UN Members who voted in our favour, they all deserve indeed to be named fully: India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, Republic of Korea, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary.
A special thanks goes to Belgium, for its relentless efforts in building a consensus around us, together with the United States and Argentina. We would like to thank also our member organisations which successfully lobbied their Governments on this occasion and all our allies for their support, in particular Arc-International in Geneva."

"Today we are celebrating said co-Secretary General Gloria Careaga from Mexico City but we are aware that there is a lot of work to do for us in the coming months. But we are looking forward to working together with all our members, particularly those which also have the status, and our allies to advance LGBTI human rights in the UN bodies in the coming years, taking advantage of the very positive developments opened by the resolution presented by South Africa in the UN Human Rights Council last June."

Pedro Paradiso Sottile, Regional Secretary for ILGA LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean), also in Geneva for the occasion, said: "Granting ILGA consultative status is an act of justice and a reason for pride for the international community working for a world where human rights are truly trespected without any discrimination. Our voices and our struggle for equality and freedom must reach every corner of the world, for differences in sexual orientation, gender identity and expression to be respected and
protected by all States. We believe that the ECOSOC status will help all our activists around the world in this endeavour.

--
Renato Sabbadini
co-Secretary General, ILGA
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association
rue de la Charit 17
1210 Brussels
tel. +3225022471
fax +32 2 22 34820
email: renato@ilga.org
web: www.ilga.org

My latest nerdy crush.

So I've finally gotten around to watching Farscape recently and pretty quickly developed a nerdy crush type fascination with, what can be seen as the only punk character in the show. This is Chiana, a hot individualistic Nebari who respects no authority and values her freedom more than anything or anyone else. She comes across in the show as quite promiscuous, kinky and street smart, and these traits, coupled with a strange speech patterns and a habit of crouching on objects rather than sitting, kinda make me droool and squirm a bit... Chiana is played by a cool actor/performer from Perth named Gigi Edgley.

Gigi does a fantastic job in Farscape and she's in some other stuff too, including Secret Life Of Us. Her official site is here. Yay!