UN

Human Rights Council - Panel discussion sexual orientation and Gender Identity- 7 March 2012 Senegal on behalf of the African Group Thank you, Madame President. Madame President, I am making this statement on behalf of the majority of the member states of the African Group. We pay particular attention to the fight against discrimination and violence, as well as any issues that affect human beings, both their social, economic and cultural rights as well as their civic rights. Our statement on this controversial issue is an expression of our commitment within this Council and our determination as a group to make sure that our concerns are heard which I will do on the basis of the following points, which stems from the heads of government and heads of state summit held in Kampala, Uganda, in 2010, and is on the basis of the governance document and charter of the African Union in Addis Abeba, at our heads of government and heads of state meeting. We reaffirm the importance of the need for respect for regional systems of cultural and religious values when it comes to reviewing human right issues. We would like to highlight the need to preserve the common ownership of the international human rights programme, and to ensure that human rights issues be reviewed in an objective and not conflicting way. We reject categorically any attempt to try and hijack the human rights system by trying to impose concepts or notions of the social area, particularly certain behaviours of private individuals which do not fall under the international legally agreed definition of human rights, while being aware that this seems to be an act of contempt towards the universality and universal nature of human rights. We would like to recall the importance of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance. Thank you.