President Joe Biden on Wednesday reiterated his administration’s commitment to LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad. “The future will be won by those countries that unleash the full potential of their populations, where women and girls can exercise equal rights, including basic reproductive rights and contribute fully to building stronger economies and more resilient societies, where religious and ethnic minorities can live their lives without harassment and contribute to the fabric of their communities, where the LGBTQ+ community, individuals live and love freely without being targeted with violence, where citizens can question and criticize their leaders without fear of reprisal,” said Biden in his speech at the U.N.
General Assembly. Biden specifically referenced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the U.N. General Assembly ratified in 1948.
Biden also noted “fundamental freedoms are at risk in every part of our world” with specific references to the Taliban’s repression of women and girls in Afghanistan, the persecution of pro-democracy activists in Myanmar and human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in China’s Xinjiang province that now former U.N.
High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet documented in a report her office released just before her tenure ended on Sept.