Declaration of Montréal: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
Montréal, 29 July 2006 – On
the final day of the International Conference
on LGBT Human Rights, participants drafted
the Declaration of Montréal, a statement intended
to guarantee the rights of the international
LGBT community.
The introduction of the Declaration
states: “ ‘All
human beings are born free and equal in dignity
and rights.’ This famous first sentence
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
adopted almost sixty years ago by the General
Assembly of the United Nations, contains in
a nutshell our political agenda, as lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, transitioned
and intersexual persons.
The world has gradually
accepted that individual human beings have
different sexes, racial or ethnic origins,
and religions, and that these differences
must be respected and not be used as reasons
for discrimination. But most countries still
do not accept two other aspects of human
diversity: that people have different sexual
orientations and different gender identities;
that two women or two men can fall in love
with each other; and that a person’s
identity, as female or male or neither, is
not always determined by the type of body into
which they were born.”
The Declaration of Montréal is
intended to rectify this discrepancy.
In a joint statement released today, Ms.
Joke Swiebel and Mr. Robert
Wintemute, the Co-Presidents of the Conference
said: “To close the Conference, the
Declaration of Montréal will be presented
to all the participants. The goal is to make
this Declaration available to the United Nations
and to national governments, in order to mobilise
unequivocal support for LGBT rights. The Declaration
will serve as a tool and source of inspiration
for LGBT activists and their supporters around
the world. This is the legacy of the Conference—a
legacy that has as its foundation the participation
of LGBT activists throughout the globe. It
is a breakthrough for the international LGBT
community and, indeed, for the whole of humanity.”
Tonight, the Conference participants
will unite with the 1st World
Outgames athletes from 111 countries in Montréal’s
Olympic Stadium for the games’ Opening
Ceremonies. Internationally acclaimed tennis
champion Ms. Martina
Navratilova and three-time Olympic medallist Mr.
Mark Tewskbury, co-spokespersons for
the event, will present the Declaration to the
stadium and to the world.
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