Manny de Freitas is a South African MP for the Democratic Alliance
Openly gay MP Manny de Freitas recently participated in a gathering of parliamentarians from around the world in Geneva, where the topic of LGBTI rights caused a furore. Some delegates from the Middle East and Africa even threatened to walk out. He reports on the events that unfolded.
Between the 22nd and the 28th of March I had the privilege of attending the 138th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) as part of the South African delegation.
The IPU is a unique organisation made up of national parliaments from around the world – basically the IPU is the United Nations of Parliaments. Currently the IPU has 178 Member Parliaments and 12 Associate Members. More than 6.5 billion of the world’s 7 billion people live in states whose parliaments are members of the IPU. One can thus understand the importance of the IPU in shaping policy and opinion worldwide.
In the 137th Assembly held in St Petersburg is Russia last year, the Committee on Democracy and Human Rights agreed to debate the following topic at the next assembly which was held in March at the IPU headquarters in Geneva, “The role of parliaments in ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and ensuring respect for the human rights of LGBTI persons”. The rules of the IPU state that committees may develop their programmes independently. Although there was opposition to this topic from many African and Arab countries, it was agreed that this topic would indeed be debated. Read more via Mamba