For Immediate Release 8-15-92 Contacts: Lester Pierce 215-480-2345, Janice Thom 718-729-0803, Howard Wallace 415-861-0318 ILGA CONFERENCE DECIDES NAME AND DEMANDS OF 1994 INTERNATIONAL MARCH Stonewall 25 released today the text of political demands of the International March on the United Nations to Affirm the Human Rights of Lesbian and Gay People. The March will be held on June 20, 1994, in New York City. The name and demands were decided by the 14th Annual Conference of the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), meeting in Paris, France, July 12-18. The over 260 conference participants from over 30 countries, unanimously endorsed the March. " For this event to be truly international in scope and for it to gather significant international support and participation, it is essential that the basic political decisions be made on an international basis," said Gro Linstad, of Norway, who chaired the session. "This process seems to be well underway," she added. The demands of the march include a call upon the United Nations and its Member States to take all necessary action to assure that the promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights not be denied lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, nor to people who have AIDS or are HIV positive. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly of the UN in 1948, proclaims that all human beings are entitled to basic human rights. An International Advisory Committee including representatives of organizations from every continent will meet at the 1993 ILGA Conference in Barcelona, Spain, to plan the program of the International Rally on June 26, 1994, in New York City. The March and Rally will take place on the last Sunday in June, the day the Stonewall Rebellion is traditionally celebrated and in many other places. The Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, which began with an uprising against a police raid on a New York gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, sparked the contemporary lesbian/gay/bisexual movement. Pride groups across the U.S. and in other countries are shifting the dates of their events to avoid conflicting with the International March and Rally. " To my knowledge, no political or civil rights demonstration has ever been organized on this scale or this far in advance," stated Leslie Cagan, Coordinator of the New York City Committee for the 1987 March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, and National Coordinator of the June 12, 1982 demonstration, which drew over one million people on the occasion of the Second UN Special Session on Disarmament. INTERNATIONAL MARCH ON THE UNITED NATIONS TO AFFIRM THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF LESBIAN AND GAY PEOPLE, JUNE 26, 1994 NEW YORK CITY USA We call upon the United Nations, its agencies, its member states and its affiliated non-governmental organizations to take all necessary action to assure that: 1. The promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights not be denied to lesbian, gay and bisexual people; 2. The rights and freedoms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights be fulfilled to all people, including lesbian, gay and bisexual people, without distinction of any kind, such as race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, language, age, disability, socio-economic status and national or social origin; 3. The agencies of the UN and non-governmental organizations affiliated with the UN, undertake to report on violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affecting lesbian, gay and bisexual people; 4. The promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights not be denied people who have AIDS or are HIV positive; 5. The promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with regard tot the right of health care not be denied to people with HIV/AIDS, nor to lesbian, gay and bisexual people, including those who desire to engage in reproduction; 6. The global effort to combat HIV/AIDS to be intensified; 7. The member states of the UN adopt a protocol to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to define as a crime of genocide the intended destruction of any of the targets of the Holocaust, including lesbian, gay and bisexual people, and the intentional destruction of any population group based on that group's race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, language, age, disability, socio-economic status and national or social origin; 8. The agencies of the UN not deny non-governmental organizations recognition or consultative status on the basis of their support for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, or people who have AIDS or are HIV positive; 9. The General Assembly of the UN proclaim an International Year of Lesbian and Gay People (possibly 1999); 10.The UN and its agencies not discriminate against lesbian, gay and bisexual people in matters of contracting, hiring, employment conditions and termination; 11. The member states increase the funding of the human rights agencies of the UN to accelerate the progress toward realizing the promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; 12. The right of lesbian, gay, an bisexual people to create families be recognized and protected, and that our family relationships with each other and our children be celebrated in 1994, The International Year of the Family. We call upon the United Nations and the people of the world to join us in affirming the dignity and legitimacy of lesbian, gay and bisexual people as participants in the rich mosaic that constitutes the diversity of the human family. ******** Michael mnorth@guvax.georgetown.edu ********** D.C. in ninety three stonewau in ninety fau