US secretary of state Mike Pompeo is expected to push his extreme anti-LGBT+ views onto the international diplomatic community at an upcoming UN general assembly.
On 16 September Pompeo reportedly plans to present the findings of his ‘Commission on Unalienable Rights’, a report which describes abortion and same-sex marriage as “divisive social and political controversies”.
The report undercuts existing human rights laws by declaring religious freedom to be above other rights, sparking serious concern among several human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Equity Forward and Human Rights Watch.
Fearing that the report could be used to undermine LGBT+ equality and reproductive rights internationally, the groups have been emailing foreign diplomats ahead of time to call on them to reject the report.
“We are aware that secretary Mike Pompeo plans to host a high-level meeting on the commission during the opening week of this year’s UN general assembly,” reads one email sent to several EU officials, obtained by Mother Jones.
“We are therefore calling on you not to support this event to make clear to the US government and the public that you reject the commission’s dangerous view of selective, nationalised human rights.”
Pompeo’s commission is dominated by officials with anti-LGBT+ views, with seven of the ten members having expressed these views publicly.
Pompeo has previously claimed that the body was necessary because “international institutions designed and built to protect human rights have drifted from their original mission”, suggesting different rights have “come into tension with one another”.
“There are a number of foreign governments that are really concerned by the commission and its work,” Rob Berschinski, senior vice president for policy at Human Rights First, told Mother Jones.
However, he acknowledged the difficulty in inspiring any US ally to speak out at the UN assembly.
“This is sensitive,” he said. “Anytime democratic governments find themselves needing to criticise the US government on a matter of human rights, it’s by definition a complex topic to negotiate.”