As the UN gathers this week for its annual meeting on women’s rights, MADRE denounces the decision by the US government to include in its official delegation representatives from two groups whose positions run counter to those of human rights for women and LGBTIQ people.
The US delegation to the UN Commission on the Status of Women includes the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-FAM), which has been categorized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The organization espouses virulently homophobic beliefs, including calls for the criminalization of homosexuality, and spreads discriminatory and false claims about LGBTIQ people.
The Heritage Foundation has been influential in setting the policy agenda for the Trump Administration, including through calls to cut funding for anti-violence against women programs. The organization has also advocated against laws to protect people against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
MADRE joins with rights organizations, like OutRight Action International, in pointing out the total incompatibility of such positions with the human rights aims of CSW and the UN.
“These positions advanced by these organizations may align with the Trump Administration, but they should have no place among human rights advocates or at CSW,” said Yifat Susskind, MADRE Executive Director. “Together with our allies across social movements, we must – and will – oppose this dangerous rhetoric and these harmful policies wherever they may surface, whether in domestic politics or this week at the UN.”
