By John Mack Freeman
Russia’s bid to block same sex benefits at the United Nations failed this week. Secretary General Ban had previously extended benefits to all same sex partners that worked for the United Nations. Previously, the benefits had been at the discretion of the employing country. When Russia called for a vote of the Fifth Committee which handles the United Nations Budget. Via Reuters:
Russia failed on Tuesday in a bid to stop the United Nations extending staff benefits to all same-sex couples after a U.N. General Assembly budget committee voted 80 to 43 against the proposal.
There were 37 abstentions and 33 countries did not vote. […]
“We must speak plainly about what Russia tried to do today: diminish the authority of the U.N. Secretary-General and export to the U.N. its domestic hostility to LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) rights,” the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said in a statement after the vote.
Deputy Russian U.N. Ambassador Petr Iliichev said before the vote that the United Nations should return to how the issue was previously regulated, citing it as “an example of how the United Nations respects cultural differences, the sovereign right of each and every state to determine its norms.”
