un's annan faces outrage over gay family ruling

By AFP

April 2, 2004: UNITED NATIONS - Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday was pressed to reconsider his decision to extend family benefits to the gay partners of UN staff after an outcry from African and Muslim countries.

His January order has unleashed waves of anger and unprecedented challenges to the authority of the UN chief to decide which benefits his staff should receive.

The 57-nation Muslim bloc, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, joined forces with the Vatican and many African nations in expressing revulsion at Annan's blessing of same-sex partnerships.

The UN General Assembly budget committee on Friday passed a resolution calling on Annan to review his decision, capping weeks of heated debate in the normally staid corridors of the United Nations.

The genteel conference halls on Friday were again transformed by a spirited debate on the meaning of marriage and family, as many delegations underlined that homosexual couples are illegal under their national laws.

Annan ordered family entitlements to be paid to same-sex partners as long as the couple is legally recognised by the UN staffer's country of origin -- something which applies to only a handful of the UN's 191 member nations.

The issue has galvanised a defence of the traditional family, bringing together nations like Islamic Iran and the United States which are usually at loggerheads at the United Nations.

"The family is the natural and fundamental unit of society and the necessary basis of social order," said Kenya's Albina Chebomui.

"My delegation recognises the family as based on the union of a man and a woman as universally described in dictionaries in various languages, and as traditionally known in the African culture and other world cultures," she said.

The United States said it was concerned that Annan's order was "divisive" and urged the UN chief to reconsider.

When Annan issued his decree, the association of gay, lesbian and bisexual UN staff, UNGLOBE, hailed the move and said it had been working to secure family benefits rights for years.

But of the world body's more than 9,000 staff worldwide, fewer than a dozen have applied to receive the same-sex domestic benefits, a UN spokesman said.

Annan said his ruling would "continue to ensure respect for the social, religious and cultural diversity" of the UN's member states.