Topic: LGBT Rights
Country: South Africa
Delegate Name: Zoe VanSlooten
School: Forest Hills Eastern High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All South Africa position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
South Africa admittedly has a history of discriminatory legal policy against certain populations, including the Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Trans community. With the ending of apartheid in the early 1990’s, however, South Africa enacted liberal legal policy surrounding LGBT rights.
On April 27th, 1994, the ruling to legalize homosexual activity in South Africa was ordered to be retroactively applied, and it was officially applied on October 7, 1998. Since the initial decision in 1994, other rights of LGBT citizens have been protected. Discrimination of any kind, but specifically in housing and employment, was made illegal in 1996, followed by the right to serve openly in the military later that year. In 2004, transgender citizens were given the right to a legal gender change. In 2006, South Africa became the only African nation to legalize same-sex marriage, and finally in 2010 same-sex couples were given the right to adopt children.
The national rights and protections we have in place for LGBT citizens should be implemented as international policy. As virtually every country claims to be concerned about the well being of its citizens, they must actively support this statement by enacting policies to protect their citizens’ rights and defend their safety.
Citizens of nations around the world should be protected despite their sexuality or gender identification. In order to do so, South Africa encourages nations to protect the rights of their LGBT citizens and advocates for international policy on the subject to be put in place.
