The United Nations Security Council addressed an exclusively LGBT issue on Monday, centred on ISIS’ targeted persecution and violence towards the LGBT community in Iraq and Syria.
Executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission fronted the council accompanied by two men from Iraq and Syria, who shared the horrors of living LGBT in ISIS occupied and adjacent regions.
Subhi Nahas, the Syrian representative, hails from the city of Idleb. Nahas, who has been granted refugee status by the UN High Commission on Refugees, is now a resident of San Francisco acting for the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration.
Nahas escaped to Lebanon in 2012 after an Al Qaeda affiliated group seized control of Idleb. Mr Nahas found temporary refuge in Turkey before being resettled to the United States.
“I have witnessed with my own eyes the annihilation of civility and humanity as I knew them,” Nahas told the council, “For millions of Syrians both in and outside the country, time is running out.”
“For my compatriots who do not conform to gender and sexual norms, the 11th hour has already passed. They need your help now.”
The Iraqi representative, using the pseudonym ‘Adnan’ to protect himself, had to deliver his testimony by telephone.
Jessica Brand of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission pleaded with the council to heed the words of the two men and suggested the UN begin work on creating safe houses in affected areas and provide psychological support to the community.
“Given the extreme and constant forms of attack against LGBTI people we think it’s of the utmost importance for the Security Council to act urgently,” Ms Stern told media after the meeting.
“The heart of my message today is this: the international community must understand anti-LGBTI persecution as a component of how ISIS treats those it labels as “impure”. We must recognize that these threats exist on a continuum of violence and discrimination before, during and after conflict.”
ISIS have released a tirade of videos showing militants binding, torturing and throwing men from buildings as well as children stoning suspected homosexuals to death.
“It was not only the State that abdicated responsibility: some families would rather harm their own children than see their so-called “honour” besmirched,” Brand said, “Some have twisted faith to incite violence.”
OIP Staff
