UN labour agency gets budget despite LGBTQ rights drama

The UN labour agency's budget was approved late Tuesday, following a last-minute compromise in a dramatic stand-off between countries over references to discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

The International Labour Organization's members overwhelmingly voted at its annual decision-making conference to pass its 2024-2025 programme and budget.

It passed by 477 votes to 11, with seven abstentions.

The vote followed an unprecedented impasse, pitting African and Muslim countries against mainly Western nations, that for days appeared poised to delay or even block the approval of the ILO's $885-million two-year budget.

For the first time, countries on the International Labour Conference's finance committee struggled to reach consensus on the programme and budget texts, putting the issue to several unsuccessful votes.

The stand-off -- taking place during Pride Month -- centred on wording that had actually been present in at least two previous programme budgets in the section on gender equality, non-discrimination and inclusion. 

The dispute appears to be part of a broader and growing effort to remove references to sexual orientation and gender identity that had long gone uncontested in resolutions and texts across the United Nations system.

ILO spokeswoman Rosalind Yarde explained late last week that African group and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries "did not want to include wording relating to sexual orientation and gender identity in the programme and budget document, specifically in relation to the work of the office in their countries".

They had proposed an amendment -- flatly rejected by countries in the Americas, Europe and parts of the Asia-Pacific region -- to remove mention of specific vulnerable groups covered by the ILO's mandate to battle discrimination.

Late-night screaming matches 

After days of heated negotiations -- observers described late-night screaming matches between some negotiators -- the sides finally managed to agree a compromise late Monday.

Despite harsh opposition from the OIC countries especially, the adopted text still makes specific reference to people facing discrimination and exclusion "on the grounds of race, sexual orientation and gender identity."

But a note has been included that "recognises the different positions expressed on the issue", Yarde told reporters in Geneva.

The committee compromise allowed the programme and budget to finally go to the conference plenary on Tuesday, where countries are represented by governments, employers and unions, under the ILO's tripartite system -- unique in the United Nations.

Before the vote, several speakers from Western countries stressed to the plenary the importance of resisting attempts to roll back and reduce language on gender identity and sexual orientation.

"The equality of every man, of every woman, of every person is not a point for negotiation," Canadian Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan, himself gay, told the conference.

He pointed out that his 13-year marriage would once have been illegal in his country and "I would be jailed, or I would be condemned to death if I happened to have been born in some of the member states before me."

"My love for my husband will never again be negotiated... I will never let it be negotiated away," he said.

"Once rights are achieved... we will not stand by and have them brushed over, put back in the closet, or taken away."