By Astrid Zweynert
LONDON (TrustLaw) – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II will sign a new Commonwealth charter on Monday, declaring that its member nations are “implacably opposed to all forms of discrimination, whether rooted in gender, race, colour, creed, political belief or other grounds.”
Commentators rushed to interpret “other grounds” as a reference to gay and lesbian rights, whose sexual activities are criminal offences in 41 of the 54 Commonwealth states.
“Queen fights for gay rights,” declared the Mail on Sunday’s front page, saying that it was the first time that the monarch had signaled support for gay rights in her 61-year reign.
“The impact of this statement on gay and women’s rights should not be underestimated,” the newspaper quoted a diplomatic source as saying. “Nothing this progressive has ever been approved by the United Nations.”
Described as a “21st century Magna Carta,” the charter, due to be signed at a ceremony on Monday evening, contains affirmations on democracy, human rights, international peace and security. It will also include a commitment to women’s empowerment, according to newspaper reports.
Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the gay and lesbian advocacy group Stonewall, praised the Queen as having taken “an historic step forward” on gay rights, a Stonewall spokesman said.
But another gay rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, pointed out that the new charter did not include any specific mention of discrimination based on sexual orientation.
“While I doubt that Elizabeth II is a raging homophobe, she certainly doesn’t appear to be gay-friendly,” said Tatchell on his website. “Not once in her 60-year reign has she publicly acknowledged the existence of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.”
“While she has spoken approvingly of the UK’s many races and faiths, for six decades she has ignored LGBT Britons. If she treated black and Asian Britons in the same way, she’d be denounced as racist. Why the double standards?”
A specific reference to gays and lesbians was likely to have been omitted in the charter in deference to Commonwealth countries with draconian anti-gay laws, as all member states have had to agree to the document, newspapers said.
Commonwealth member Uganda sparked a global outcry when legislators tried to institute the death penalty for homosexuality in a bill that is still working its way through parliament.
Nigeria, Tanzania, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mauritius and Jamaica are also among Commonwealth countries where homosexuality is a criminal offfence.
The British government last year suspended aid to Malawi over the persecution of gay people and other governance concerns and has threatened to do the same to Uganda and Ghana. Malawi since announced that it had suspended anti-gay laws pending a debate on whether to repeal the legislation.
A sign that the Commonwealth as an institution may become more open towards LGBT rights emerged in 2011 when Commonwealth Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma argued that “vilification and targeting on grounds of sexual orientation are at odds with values of the Commonwealth.”
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