Human Rights Defenders, and selected speakers, addressed the ever present discrimination based on one's sexual orientation and gender identity. Assistant SG for Human Rights, Ivan Simonovic, gave a clear message that human rights must be absolute for all human beings, and how the UN human rights system are responding to the challenge of homophobic violence and discrimination; for example, the Human Rights Committee, the body that monitors implementation of the Int. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, repeatedly confirmed that States that are party to the Covenant are under a legal obligation not to discriminate based on sexual orientation. In June of this year, the first UN resolution specifically on LGBT rights was adopted; its findings and recommendations, in itself, show a sign of progress. Judy Shepard, spoke from her heart of the "Hate Crime" that ended her son's life because of his sexual orientation. Her advice to the audience was: educate against such travesty, tell your stories of like victims whose person has been destroyed, work with gov't and grassroots advocates to end
this human violation.
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