African nations are seeking to suspend the work of the first UN independent expert charged with investigating abuse against the global LGBT community.
The UN human rights council voted in June to appoint an independent LGBT expert. Prof Vitit Muntarbhorn from Thailand, was handed the role last month.
Botswana’s ambassador to the UN, Charles Ntwaagae, said on 4 November that African nations want Muntarbhorn’s mandate revoked.
Ntwaagae said African nations "are alarmed" that the Human Rights Council is delving into national matters and attempting to focus on people on the grounds of their sexual interests and behaviours.
He said that sexual orientation and gender identity are being given attention "to the detriment of issues of paramount importance such as the right to development and the racism agenda".
African countries want to emphasise that sexual orientation and gender identity "are not and should not be linked to existing international human rights instruments", said Ntwaagae.
He added that African nations are also concerned that sexual orientation and gender identity was being given attention to the detriment of other, vital, issues including development and racism.
The UN has worked to improve the rights of the LGBT community in recent years but has repeatedly run into opposition from some member states - especially from countries in the Middle East and Africa as well as China and Russia.
According to a UN human rights report last year, at least 76 countries retain laws used to criminalise and harass people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, including laws criminalising consensual same-sex relationships among adults.
The UN Human Rights Council resolution to appoint an LGBT expert was approved by a vote of 23-18, with six abstentions. The tight margin reflects deep divisions internationally on gay rights, writes the Guardian.
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