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Posted: 2016-10-01 05:13:31

London: The UN Human Rights Council has appointed its first independent investigator to help protect homosexual and transgender people worldwide from violence and discrimination.

UN expert Vitit Muntarbhorn will have a three-year mandate to investigate abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people.

A woman holds a rainbow flag during a Pride Parade in New York. Young Americans overwhelmingly say they support LGBTI ...
A woman holds a rainbow flag during a Pride Parade in New York. Young Americans overwhelmingly say they support LGBTI rights when it comes to employment, health care and adoption.  Photo: AP

Muntarbhorn is an international law professor at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, and has served on several UN bodies, including inquiries on Syria and as a special rapporteur on North Korea.

The UN agreed on the new role in June, after the 47-member council overcame strong objections by Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries to adopt a Western-backed resolution by a vote of 23 states in favour and 18 against with six abstentions.

An LGBTI pride flag hangs on a bookshelf by a Massimadi festival poster, right, in the festival organiser's office in ...
An LGBTI pride flag hangs on a bookshelf by a Massimadi festival poster, right, in the festival organiser's office in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on Tuesday. The four-day film and art event was called off due to threats of violence. Photo: AP

Human Rights Watch welcomed Friday's appointment, saying the UN council "made history".

"This critical mandate will bring much-needed attention to human rights violations against LGBT people in all regions of the world," John Fisher, the group's director in Geneva, said in a statement.

The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) said the newly created role was critical to give justice to LGBTI people who have been attacked, abused or discriminated against.

"Never has there been a more urgent need to safeguard the human rights of LGBTI persons around the world," executive director of ILGA, Renato Sabbadini, said in a statement to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

A man walks past an anti-LGBTI banner erected by an ultra-conservative Islamic group in Jakarta. Indonesia's ...
A man walks past an anti-LGBTI banner erected by an ultra-conservative Islamic group in Jakarta. Indonesia's Constitutional Court is considering whether to make gay sex a crime after accepting a judicial review petition from Islamic activists.  Photo: AP

Hundreds of LGBTI people have been killed and thousands injured in recent years, in violence that included knife attacks, anal rape and genital mutilation, as well as stoning and dismemberment, the UN said in a report last year.

More than 2000 transgender and gender diverse people were murdered in 65 countries between 2008 and 2015, according to The Trans Murder Monitoring project, which is co-ordinated by LGBTI rights group Transgender Europe.

In 2011, the UN rights body declared there should be no discrimination or violence against people based on their sexual orientation.

Reuters

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