Topic: LGBT Rights
Country: Tunisia
Delegate Name: Lia Bommarito
School: Williamston High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Tunisia position papers GLIMUN 2015 committees
Throughout the world, it can be agreed upon that people who identify as part of the LGBT spectrum are discriminated against. Although the movement of LGBT people struggling for basic rights is gaining speed around the world, countless countries exist separately, in a space where LGBT people are neglected as a group. LGBT people are often denied the right of marriage and marriage benefits, recognition of a relationship, the ability to adopt children, the right to legally change one’s gender, and many other rights that do not involve orientation (the right to serve in the military or to give blood). Movements and protests are constantly happening in countries that oppress LGBT people and the opposition has gained considerable speed.
Even with LGBT protests gaining attention, countries should not be hasty with their resolutions; applying national laws to an international level could yield outcries from conservative countries. Tunisia is a Muslim country that follows the law of the Quran quite strictly, and sees that LGBT people are criminals under Tunisian law. Article 230 in Tunisia declares sodomy illegal, a prohibition that many other Muslim countries have. Progressive Western viewpoints cannot be ignored, but it is ridiculous to suggest that every country follow a set of laws gifting LGBT people rights that for hundreds of years in their countries, they have never had. With that, the council cannot ignore the Declaration of Human Rights; LGBT people are, as such, people. They have all the rights stated in the Declaration and no country should be able to deny them of those.
However, as stated prior, countries that provide excessive rights to LGBT people cannot force their ideas into an international resolution. Doing so would infringe on the national sovereignty of countries not agreeing with said resolution. Tunisia would not be opposed to a resolution that emphasizes the rights given to LGBT people by the Declaration of Human Rights, but resolutions designating rights and privileges to LGBT people worldwide cannot be passed. Tunisia expects all other countries obeying the law of the Quran, and all other countries that respect national sovereignty, to agree with them. This may include Algeria, Libya and Egypt.
