UN overwhelmingly votes against US proposal limiting definition of gender
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The United Nations have overwhelmingly voted against considering a proposal from the United States that would ask UN member states to define “gender” as referring only to men and women.
The US introduced the resolution on the final day of the UN’s 70th annual Commission on the Status of Women, its women’s rights conference, on 19 March.
In a draft seen by publication PassBlue, the US noted “the many meanings or connotations of the term ‘gender’ that have become common in recent years and that are different from accepted prior usage.”
It claimed that the Beijing Declaration on women’s rights from 1995 defined gender as such, but a letter from the Women’s Rights Caucus sent to delegates last week said that the commission did not hold specific definition of gender.
According to PassBlue, International Crisis Group gender director Cristal Downing said that member states “agreed to disagree” on the definition and “were more comfortable with leaving the term open to interpretation than they were with any attempt to create a shared definition”.
When it came to the US’s resolution, Belgium’s representative said that it was “factually incorrect” and that it “attempts to rewrite” the Beijing Declaration. Belgium called for a “no action motion” to stop the proposal moving forward.
A total of 23 countries voted with Belgium, while 17 abstained and just two – Pakistan and Chile – voted in line with the United States.
Speaking to Devex on 19 March, María Paula Perdomo from LGBTQ+ organisation Outright International said: “It was a huge moment of the world telling the US that it stops here. We follow the rules, and if you want to bring this, do it appropriately, do it with due process, and bring it with truth.”
As reported by PassBlue, some of the member states that abstained from voting, including Italy, did so as the United States failed to follow due process in presenting the motion but noted that their national policies aligned with the US.
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