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Russia fails in bid to halt UN staff benefits for same-sex couples
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Russia has failed on Tuesday in a bid to stop the United Nations extending staff benefits to all same-sex couples after a UN general assembly budget committee voted 80-43 against the proposal.
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
There were 37 abstentions, and 33 countries did not vote.
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said in July that the United Nations would recognize all same-sex marriages of its staff, allowing them to receive UN benefits.
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Previously, staff members’ personal status was determined by the laws of their country of nationality. But the United Nations now recognizes all same-sex couples married in a country where it is legal, regardless of their nationality.
Russia wanted the 193-member general assembly fifth committee, which deals with the UN budget, to overturn Ban’s decision and had been threatening to put the measure to a vote since December.
Russia’s deputy UN 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”.
Russia triggered global criticism in 2013 when it banned spreading “gay propaganda” to children. Critics denounced the law as discriminatory and said it is a curb on rights to free speech and assembly.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, says there is no gay discrimination in Russia, which decriminalized homosexuality in 1993.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told the UN committee before the vote that the proposal by Russia attempted to undermine the authority of Ban as the world body’s chief administrative officer. Russia denied this allegation.
“Russia claims the administrative decision will impose a new standard on member states. But this is not true,” Power said. “The bulletin changes the UN’s practice and does not seek to change member states’ domestic legislation.”
Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, India, Egypt, Pakistan and Syria were among the countries that voted in favor of Russia’s proposal.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not support the expansion of benefits for same-sex couples because Saudi Arabia believes these relationships are morally unacceptable,” a Saudi diplomat told the UN committee.
