The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has claimed responsibility for executing at least 30 people accused of sodomy, the head of an worldwide gay rights organization told the United Nations Security Council on Monday.
Advertisement
“This was to be my fate, too”, Nahas recalled.
Subhi Nahas escaped execution by fleeing to Lebanon after ISIS took his city, Idlib, Syria. In the closed-door informal meeting of the UN organised by the United States and Chile to draw attention to “brutal attacks” by the militants, he spoke on how terrified he was to leave his home, and how unsafe things were at their end because his father always used to monitor him after he found Nahas was gay.
Lebanese advocates with whom the Blade spoke earlier this year said they have heard reports of Sunni militants burning alive men they suspect are gay.
In Iraq, 12 strikes near Baiji, Mosul, Ramadi and other cities hit tactical units, buildings and vehicles, the statement said.
The IS group has claimed to have killed at least 30 people due to their sexual orientation and some of them were gruesome executions.
The global Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has created a timeline of attacks against allegedly LGBT people, including executions that often involve throwing men from roof tops or stoning them to death.
‘In addition to men perceived as gay, trans-identified people and lesbians are among those who have been raped and killed, ‘ she added.
Acknowledging sexual minorities in this way was an “important step” for expanding human rights, said Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, who sponsored the meeting with her diplomatic counterpart from Chile.
More than 75 of the UN’s 193 member-states have laws criminalising homosexuality. “It is up to the nations of conscience represented here today to open their doors and give these refugees the safety they need”.
“This is the first time in history that the council has held a meeting on the victimization of LGBT persons”, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said in her remarks.
Security Council members and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees were urged to take immediate action to help assist and relocate vulnerable LGBT people. More recently, President Obama explained in the 2015 State of the Union that protecting individuals, including those who are LGBT, is in the national security interests of the United States.
Two member states did not attend the UN Security Council meeting – Chad and Angola.
Advertisement
“While the targeting of LGBT individuals in the region appears to have worsened as ISIL’s power has grown, such violence and hatred existed well before the group’s dramatic rise, and that violence and hatred extends far beyond ISIL’s membership”, Power said, using the Obama administration’s preferred name for the Islamic State group. She called the long overdue meeting “historic” as it turns 70 this year.
