Quiet criticism from the vatican

adminonNovember 26, 2021January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

UN wants to better protect homosexuals © Marcus Brandt

UN wants to better protect homosexuals from discrimination and violence. UN Human Rights Council created office of independent expert to monitor respect for rights of sexual minorities. Quiet criticism comes from the Vatican.

A total of 23 Council member countries, including Germany, voted to appoint the expert for a three-year term. 18 countries voted against, including Algeria, China, Indonesia, Kenya, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Six states abstained.

The draft was introduced by Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. The new commissioner is to prepare reports for the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly. In it, he is expected to outline whether and how member states are meeting their international obligations to protect sexual minorities.

Commissioner still unknown

The UN has yet to appoint the commissioner. The expert is to raise awareness of the problem of discrimination and violence against sexual minorities and identify the reasons for attacks. Mandate lasts three years.

Human rights organizations such as the International Service for Human Rights welcomed the decision. Gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transsexuals are increasingly victims of hate and violence and must be better protected. There are 47 countries represented on the UN Human Rights Council. The body monitors human rights compliance but cannot impose sanctions.

Criticism from the Vatican

The Vatican criticized the decision. Wanting to protect a "special group of rights for a specific group of people" is contrary to the principle of equality of all people, the Holy See's representation in Geneva explained in response to a question from the Catholic News Agency.

The Catholic Church is against any form of discrimination, stressed the Secretary of the Vatican Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Richard Gyhra. Behind the resolution, however, is apparently the intention of Western states to exert influence on poorer countries, for example in Africa. Thus, for example, development aid could be made dependent on expert opinions – which are not legally binding in themselves.

The Holy See has only observer status at the United Nations. According to Gyhra, however, he tried to influence voting nations, as did other states that are not among the 47 members of the Human Rights Council.

Pope Francis and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are considered permanent candidates. But this time, too, it was not enough for them to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Considered arguably the most prestigious international award, this year's Nobel Peace Prize goes to Nadia Murad, a UN special envoy living in Germany who was enslaved and raped by IS, and Denis Mukwege, a Congolese doctor. They are honored for their commitment against sexual violence as a weapon in wars and armed conflicts.

Of all people, the inventor of dynamite, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, donated the prize, which is being awarded for the 99th time this year. The first time the prize is awarded. The chemist and inventor, who died in 1896, had stipulated in his will that the interest from his foundation should go annually in five equal shares to "those who have rendered the greatest benefit to mankind during the past year".

Criticism: definition of peace too broad

Traditionally, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on 10. December, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death – unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are presented in the Norwegian capital Oslo. The Swedish Nobel Committee is also not responsible for the award, but the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which is elected by parliament. In 1901, the award was given for the first time – to Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, and Frederic Passy, founder of the French Peace Society.

Nobel Peace Prizes have often been controversial: Names such as Begin, Le Duc Tho, Kissinger, Arafat, Peres or Obama repeatedly raised the question of whether it is right to award active politicians who were driving actors in a war. By contrast, prizes for human rights activists and benefactors, including Mother Teresa, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the anti-landmine campaign, Amnesty International and Polish trade unionist Lech Walesa, were largely uncriticized.

The Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank (2006) or to the Kenyan Wangari Maathai (2004), who was called the "Mother of Trees" because of her tree-planting activities, were also criticized. The criticism was directed against a very broad definition of peace.

19 times the award has been suspended

From 1901 to 2017, the award was given to a total of 131 individuals and organizations. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been a laureate three times (1917, 1944 and 1963) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees twice (1954 and 1981). Honored 88 men and 16 women. 19 times the award has been suspended – in times of world wars, for example, or because no suitable candidate presented themselves, as was the case for the last time in 1972.

Several times the Nobel Committee has honored UN organizations or individuals with the Nobel Peace Prize. Among them was posthumous Swedish U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold, who died in an accident while trying to mediate in the 1961 Congolese civil war. In 2001, the committee honored the UN as a whole and Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Four Germans are also among those honored: Gustav Stresemann in 1926 for concluding the Locarno Treaties with former wartime enemies in the West, Ludwig Quidde in 1927 for Franco-German reconciliation, journalist and writer Carl von Ossietzky in 1935 who was persecuted by the Nazis, and German Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1971.

Seven clergymen and religious honored

Four U.S. presidents have also made it to the highest honors: Jimmy Carter in 2002, Republican Theodore Roosevelt, Democrat Woodrow Wilson and Barack Obama (2009). In 2007, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore also received the award. With 21 awards, the USA is at the top of the nation ranking – only surpassed by the international organizations.

Seven Christian clergy and religious are also among the honorees, including, in addition to Mother Teresa, the Catholic bishop in East Timor, Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, Martin Luther King, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Belgian religious Dominique Georges Pire. Youngest laureate was child rights activist Malala Yousafzai (17) from Pakistan in 2014.

The amount of the prize money depends on the current assets of the Nobel Foundation. This year, the prize is 9 million crowns (about 860.000 euros) endowed.

By Christoph Arens

Should preimplantation diagnostics be allowed in Germany?? Yes, says the FDP, no, contradicts the coalition partner. Hubert Huppe, the representative for the disabled of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, also considers a limited use of PGD to be dangerous.

It would ultimately require a decision on whether life was worth living or not, the CDU politician said on Friday (29.10.10).

Controversial PGD can detect genetic defects in an embryo created in a test tube before it is placed in the womb. If a genetic defect is diagnosed that would result in severe disability of the child, the embryo could be allowed to die.

The health policy spokesman in the European Parliament, Peter Liese (CDU), also said that a restricted use of PGD would not be practicable. The experience abroad shows that the limitation to illnesses, which lead either to a miscarriage or to an early death of the child after extreme suffering, is not convertible.

"Designer children" and "waste products" for research
Huppe said that the use of the method would create a "designer child", even if unintentionally. It is unavoidable that PGD not only detects diseases, but also additional things, such as the sex of the embryos. But it would then be questionable to withhold this information from parents.

Huppe illustrated this with the example of people of small stature who can use PGD to find out whether their child would be capable of survival. This would also reveal whether the child would be of small or normal stature. According to the Association of People of Small stature, many parents then decided to have a child of small stature, Huppe reported. This is how embryos are selected.

The disability commissioner also sees motives of the proponents in research purposes. Scientists could be interested in the "waste product" of human embryos to conduct research on, Huppe said.

In a landmark ruling in July, the German Federal Court of Justice declared PGD permissible. Therefore, action must be taken quickly now, said Liese. He pleaded for not waiting half a year with a decision. Otherwise facts would be created in hospitals.

The CDU/CSU and FDP had already agreed to release the decision for or against a PGD ban, which means that the MPs may decide independently of the party line. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had recently also spoken out in favor of a ban on PGD.

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