Topic: Rights of Lesbian and Gay Individuals
Country: New Zealand
Delegate Name: Erin Lalinsky
School: Ann Arbor Community High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All New Zealand position papers GLIMUN 2009 committees
We, the country of New Zealand are an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean. The indigenous Māori named, our country, New Zealand Aotearoa, meaning The Land of the Long White Cloud. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have most of the same rights as other people in our country. This near-equality is a relatively recent development; sex between men was only decriminalized in 1986.
We believe that sex between same-sex partners should be decriminalized all over the world. We also believe that the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of our country should have closed to the same rights as other citizens. We want to break away from the British Law we adopted in 1840 when we became a part of the British Empire. This “law” included that sex, and eventually sexual activity, between homosexuals was illegal; we want to help other nations with this as well. The punishments for this inhuman law included life imprisonment, hard labor and flogging. There needs to be something done about this. We believe that people should not be in danger of any of the aforementioned consequences. Sex between women has never been illegal in our country. We believe that it should continue like this. Not only in our country, but also in the other nations of the world. We have made consensual sex between males over the age of sixteen legal; in line with the law that consensual sex between a man and a women is only legal when both parties are over the age of sixteen. We believe that other nations should follow our country’s lead by outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sexuality and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, as stated in our Human Rights Act of 1993. Other nations should also require their military, police, and other government agencies to follow “gay-friendly” policies. We have our Royal New Zealand Navy and the Police, as well as many other government agencies adopt “gay-friendly” policies.
We are attempting to pass laws and amendments that give gay and lesbian couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples, but so far none have created complete equality. We would like to work with other nations who have better and stronger gay and lesbian rights to help us in adopting adopt more equal rights for our lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender inhabitants.
