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GAY AGENDA STRONG-ARM: Obama Ushers Controversial Group to U.N. Table calling for Criminal Penalties to Anyone Criticizing Gay Agenda!
In a move that divided countries and cultures, the United Nations on Monday granted special accreditation to a radical U.S.-based homosexual advocacy group that, among other things, favors criminal sanctions for those who criticize the homosexual agenda.
Afterward supporters of the group sounded as if the world had seen an overdue advancement of human rights. After all, the name of the group is the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
But the move did not come without controversy. The group did not get a plurality of countries voting and was only passed only after intense global pressure from the Obama administration.
The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM), which lobbied governments at the UN against accrediting the group and which has been a daily pro-family presence at the UN for 13 years, argues that the group does not adhere to basic principles of universally recognized human rights and should have been excluded.
“This is a radical organization that believes homosexual rights trump the right to free speech and freedom of religion,” says C-FAM president, Austin Ruse. “In fact, they believe criticizing the homosexual agenda should be subject to criminal penalties. Freedom of religion and freedom of speech are two bedrock human rights principles.”
In Ruse’s assessment, the matter was made worse by the fact that this would not have happened without pressure brought to bear on Third World countries by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
After the vote this week, the president himself said, this is “an important step forward for human rights,” which brings the U.N. “closer to the ideals on which it was founded, and to values of inclusion and equality to which the United States is deeply committed.”
Ruse, however, finds this Executive Branch crusade troubling for a multitude of reasons. “Hillary Clinton announced last month that every U.S. Ambassador around the world is directed to get involved in promoting the homosexual agenda in whatever country they are assigned,” he points out. “The Obama administration has made it abundantly clear that this agenda will be among their top foreign-policy priorities. They say this at a time when the U.S. is fighting two wars and is under direct threat from international terrorists.”
For a deeper look into this underpublicized development at the U.N. that is a disturbingly ironic affront against human rights, call Special Guests to arrange an interview with any of three C-FAM experts. See below.
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE MAY BE USEFUL FOR SHOW PREP:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gJYNH2s-C9t79VHX2SYvl7VNQkzQD9H2FJBO0
ABOUT C-FAM PRESIDENT, AUSTIN RUSE:
Austin Ruse has headed the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) since shortly after its creation in the summer of 1997. Mr. Ruse has held the title of President since 2000.
Ruse or his team have participated in every major UN social policy negotiation since 1997 including the multi-year negotiations that created the International Criminal Court.
He has briefed members of the U.S. House and Senate on U.N. matters, as well as briefing White House and National Security Council staff. Ruse has also briefed senior government officials, journalists, Church and non-governmental leaders from around the world.
Austin has appeared on a number of national cable network programs discussing UN and Catholic issues, including news programs on CNN, CBS News, MSNBC and Fox News and has been published in First Things, The Washington Times, National Review Online, The Weekly Standard, Human Events and Touchstone, as well as newspapers around the world. He is a biweekly columnist for TheCatholicThing.org and founder of the foreign affairs blog, TheNewSovereigntists.org/
A former foreign affairs commentator for EWTN’s weekly news broadcast The World Over, hosted by Raymond Arroyo, Austin also lectures widely on U.N. matters, appearing throughout the U.S., and in Canada, Latin America, the Far East and Europe.
ABOUT C-FAM SENIOR LEGAL ADVISOR, TERRENCE McKEEGAN:
Terrence McKeegan is the Vice President and Senior Counsel for the Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute (C-FAM),
He also serves as the Director of the Center for Legal Studies, which includes the Edmund Burke Fellowship and the International Organizations Law Group.
As head of C-FAM’s New York office, he is the managing editor of the weekly Friday Fax publication and responsible for advancing C-FAM’s mission to defend life and family at the United Nations and other international institutions.
McKeegan worked for several years as an attorney in Washington D.C. on dozens of major litigation cases and government investigations for several large firms. He is co-founder and vice president for the International Solidarity & Human Rights Institute (ISHRI). He was formerly Counsel for the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) based in Strasbourg, France, for whom he covered international legal issues and was their main UN representative.
McKeegan began his legal career as an assistant prosecuting attorney, in which he successfully prosecuted over a dozen felony weapons and drug cases, including a 93 count RICO case, and represented the county children services board. He was also an adjunct professor in the legal studies department at Franciscan University of Steubenville teaching courses on human rights, and has lectured and presented his work in the US, East Timor, the Philippines, Austria, Belize and Ireland, and has provided legal advice for the Holy See and several other nations. He has lobbied and advised on legal and social issues at the European Parliament, the United Nations, and on Capitol Hill.
A firm believer in solidarity amongst both peoples and organizations, McKeegan provides pro bono assistance and counsel to a number of organizations and individuals. McKeegan has received two grants from the Alliance Defense Fund to support his work in advising on international legal issues.
Terrance has written extensively on international human rights, including life, family and religious freedom issues, and authored numerous legal briefs that were submitted to the United Nations, and has addressed the UN Human Rights Council. He is the co-author, along with Brian Scarnecchia, of the white paper “The Millennium Development Goals: In Light of Catholic Social Teaching”, which was published by C-FAM’s International Organizations Research Group in 2009.
ABOUT C-FAM RESEARCH DIRECTOR, SUSAN YOSHIHARA:
Susan Fink Yoshihara is C-FAM Vice President for Research and Director of the International Organizations Research Group (IORG). Her research interests include intervention, human rights, and humanitarianism in international law and politics. She is the author of Waging War to Make Peace: U.S. Intervention in Global Conflicts.
Before joining C-FAM, Susan was on the faculty at the U.S. Naval War College where she taught national security decision-making and international relations. In her twenty-year career as a U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, she held the rank of Commander, led combat logistics and search and rescue units in the Pacific and Persian Gulf, advised the Atlantic Fleet commander, and worked for the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade as a White House Fellow. She is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and received her Ph.D. in international relations from the Fletcher School, Tufts University. She and her husband, Toshi, have one daughter and live in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.
ABOUT C-FAM:
C-FAM was founded in the summer of 1997 in order to monitor and affect the social policy debate at the United Nations and other international institutions.
C-FAM is a non-partisan, non-profit research institute dedicated to reestablishing a proper understanding of international law, protecting national sovereignty and the dignity of the human person.
C-FAM personnel have participated in every major UN social policy debate since 1997 including the Rome Statutes of the International Criminal Court, the Convention on Disabilities, Cairo 5, Beijing 5 and dozens of others.
C-FAM publishes and promotes scholarships related to the proposition that the UN and other international institutions harm a true understanding of international law and, in the process, undermine the family and other institutions man requires for a just, free and happy life.
C-FAM regularly interfaces with diplomats, policy makers, academics, activists and office holders from around the world.
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