Topic: Rights of Lesbian and Gay Individuals
Country: France
Delegate Name: Jeremy Gloster
School: Roeper School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All France position papers GLIMUN 2009 committees
Earlier this year, before the 64th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, President Nicolas Sarkozy, the leader of our French Republic, declared that “we have already waited too long.” We have simply waited to long to address the issues that face us in this new century. Specifically, this body has waited to long to confront human injustice regarding the rights of lesbian and gay individuals. We must now begin to recognize that gay rights are human rights.
Homosexuality has been decriminalized in France since 1791. We have wrestled with, and have found success in, providing equal rights for LGBT persons since that time. In 1986, we equalized the age of consent for homosexual persons. In 1999, we began recognizing domestic partnerships between same-sex couples. Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity has been banned in our nation, and openly gay individuals are allowed to serve in the military.
We recognize that other nations, due to national culture or religion, cannot be as progressive on this issue. Still, we urge such nations to adopt measures to decriminalize homosexuality, and we are especially alarmed by the use of capital punishment against LGBT individuals. While we believe that some LGBT issues, such as domestic partnership, can be healthily debated, all nations must agree that human rights violations, including the denial of the right to health, on the basis of discrimination are unacceptable.
In 2008, we, France, brought forth a declaration to address this issue. It declared, in part, that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity was a violation of fundamental human rights. We commend the 66 nations that supported our initial statement, as well as the United States, which changed its position in favor of the statement earlier this year. We look forward to working with other nations to decriminalize homosexuality universally, and fighting for equal rights for all persons.
