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UN Security Council urged to relocate and provide safe houses for LGBTI people targeted by ISIS
The United Nations Security Council was briefed Monday (24 August) on violence against LGBTI people by ISIS and urged to act urgently to support those being targeted in Iraq and Syria.
Jessica Stern, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, spoke to the council along with two men – one from Iraq and one from Syria – who shared their experiences of being targeted by ISIS.
Stern asked for help for those in need of relocation, suggested that safe houses be created in Iraq and urged countries to provide psychological help for those in need.
‘Given the extreme and constant forms of attack against LGBTI people we think it’s of the utmost importance for the Security Council to act urgently,’ Stern told reporters after the briefing.
‘The heart of my message today is this: the international community must understand anti-LGBTI persecution as a component of how ISIS treats those it labels as “impure.” We must recognize that these threats exist on a continuum of violence and discrimination before, during, and after conflict.’
Stern pointed out that even before the rise of ISIS and its terror campaign LGBTI people, LGBTI people in Iraq and Syria have been persecuted by intolerance.
‘It was not only the State that abdicated responsibility: some families would rather harm their own children than see their so-called “honor” besmirched,’ she said. ‘Some have twisted faith to incite violence.’
ISIS have branded LGBTI people the ‘worst of creatures’ – something many Muslims have criticized saying these are extremists misinterpreting the Qu’ran.
Since June 2014, ISIS has published at least seven online photo reports purporting to show the brutal execution of persons accused of sodomy. Four of the killings took place on 26 June to ‘celebrate’ the US passing marriage equality, terrorists threw four gay men off a building in Raqqa, Syria.
Last week, a video surfaced that revealed the moment that two gay men, blindfolded and bound, were thrown off a roof by Islamic extremists and then stoned to death by children in Syria.
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Greg Hernandez
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