Fridae

Brazil formally withdrew a resolution championing a pro-gay resolution that would condemn discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission on Monday, reported the Associated Press.

Brazil blamed insufficient international support for the document for a second year in a row and said it feared a repetition of the 2003 Human Rights Commission meeting when several Islamic countries that opposed the document got the vote postponed until this year.

Although Brazil's UN mission in Geneva said in a statement that they have been consulting with delegations of several countries on the text since November last year, they have not been able to "arrive at a necessary consensus."

Muslim members of the commission including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Libya, and Malaysia said last year they were against any resolution containing the words "sexual orientation" and that non-Muslim nations were wrong to try to impose their values on others.

Gay activists have also blamed the "unholy axis," an alliance between conservative Islamic countries and the Vatican who lobbied governments not to support the UN resolution that if accepted, the move would have been the first time that sexual orientation was included in the human rights commission.

Scott Long, of the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch, however disagreed with Brazil's move to withdraw the resolution and accused Brazil of backing down because it was afraid to jeopardise a summit of Arab and Latin American leaders it will host in September.

"We don't move human rights forward by consensus. We move human rights forward with courage," Long said. "When we counted the votes, there was a strong possibility the resolution would pass."

UK-based Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) also said today that the withdrawal reveals the religious states' true colours.

"This continued barbaric contempt for gay people shows that the Vatican is prepared to go to any lengths to promote its nasty dogmas. It has now thrown in its lot with states that kill and imprison their gay citizens," George Broadhead, secretary of GALHA said today.

As many as one third of the UN's 191 states currently outlaw homosexuality, with many punishing those found guilty with death.