US opposes UN resolution against death penalty for same-sex relations & blasphemy

At the end of September, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution generally condemning the death penalty, emphasizing how it’s often used in some parts of the world as punishment for culturally or religiously disapproved-of behaviors such as same-sex relations and blasphemy. The vote was split 27–13, with countries falling within predictable camps: most, including European and South American nations, supported it, whilst China, India and various Middle Eastern states opposed it.

Also against it? The United States.

Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Albania, Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, Paraguay, Venezuela, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and the U.K. supported the resolution. Botswana, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, China, India, Iraq, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates joined the U.S. in opposing it.

Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea and Cuba abstained.

The resolution specifically condemns “the imposition of the death penalty as a sanction for specific forms of conduct, such as apostasy, blasphemy, adultery and consensual same-sex relations” and expresses “serious concern that the application of the death penalty for adultery is disproportionately imposed on women.” It also notes “poor and economically vulnerable persons and foreign nationals are disproportionately subjected to the death penalty, that laws carrying the death penalty are used against persons exercising their rights to freedom of expression, thought, conscience, religion, and peaceful assembly and association, and that persons belonging to religious or ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented among those sentenced to the death penalty.”

The text of the resolution is broader than what many outlets are reporting; in addition to protesting executions for blasphemy, apostasy and adultery, it also condemns “in particular” executions of people with mental illnesses, and it calls upon states that haven’t yet abolished capital punishment to do so.

So on the one hand, the resolution is wide-ranging enough that the US’s vote against it may not necessarily have been over its opposition to killing gays and lesbians. On the other hand, if true, that would mean the US is joining hands with various theocratic dictatorships in defending executions of people who praise or insult the wrong god, or who are mentally or intellectually disabled.

Neither scenario is an improvement on the other.

(via @ggreenwald)