ECOSOC History – CGLQ's Efforts at the UN

Background to the application

The Coalition gaie et lesbienne du Québec (CGLQ), a nonprofit organization founded in 1992 with a mission to promote, represent and defend the rights of Quebec's gay and lesbian community, submitted an application for consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). This initiative was part of a broader movement by several international LGBT organizations seeking an official voice within the UN system.

Consultative status allows nongovernmental organizations to present oral and written reports at UN meetings, organize events on UN premises and share their analyses of the abuse and discrimination experienced by LGBT people around the world.

Review by the NGO Committee

The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, a subsidiary body of ECOSOC, is responsible for reviewing applications for consultative status. During its 2007 regular session, the Committee reviewed 23 applications at its 11^th and 12^th meetings.

The Committee recommended general consultative status for the organization “International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity,” which already held special consultative status, and special consultative status for three other organizations. However, following a vote, it declined to recommend this status for CGLQ.

Document reference: ECOSOC/6254, NGO/615 – Department of Public Information, News and Media Accreditation Service, New York.

The hearing and initial rejection

CGLQ Executive Director Me Yvan Lapointe was questioned twice by members of the NGO Committee regarding the organization's application for consultative status.

As Me Lapointe reported in December 2006: “It emerged very clearly from these two discussions with Committee members that several countries are still not ready to discuss sexual orientation. Many of them are very afraid that the equal rights achieved in some countries, such as Canada, will lead to increased demands in their own countries.”

It should be remembered that, at the time, homosexuality was still criminalized in more than 80 countries and punishable by death in about ten countries. This rejection clearly demonstrated that the efforts of LGBT NGOs remained necessary to have sexual orientation recognized as a fundamental human right.

The ECOSOC vote

Faced with the NGO Committee's rejection, CGLQ had to appeal directly to the UN Economic and Social Council to obtain consultative status. ECOSOC, composed of 54 Member States, has the power to overturn negative recommendations from its NGO Committee.

This appeal process was shared by several LGBT organizations during this period. In December 2006, ECOSOC had already overturned negative recommendations to grant status to the Danish National Association for Gay and Lesbians, ILGA-Europe and the Lesbian and Gay Federation in Germany.

The 2007 victory

In July 2007, ECOSOC ultimately granted consultative status to CGLQ, as well as to the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL). This decision represented a major victory for the inclusion of LGBT voices within the United Nations system.

Since then, CGLQ has remained the only Quebec LGBT NGO with observer and reporting status at ECOSOC. This privilege allows it to report discrimination, violence and inequality affecting LGBT people to international institutions.

What consultative status means

The rules that governed the CGLQ's application come from ECOSOC resolution 1996/31, which defines how non-governmental organizations relate to the Council. It creates three categories of consultative status: general status, for large organizations concerned with most of ECOSOC's activities; special status, for organizations with recognized expertise in only a few of its fields; and the roster, for organizations that can make occasional, useful contributions in a defined area of competence.

To apply, an organization must meet several conditions. It must have been officially in existence for at least two years, be non-profit, pursue aims and activities consistent with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, have a democratic and representative structure, a headquarters and an executive officer, and draw its resources mainly from its own members rather than from governments. The Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations examines each file and makes a recommendation, but it is ECOSOC itself that takes the final decision. This is why a negative recommendation, like the one the CGLQ first received, is not necessarily the end of the road.

Once status is granted, its holders may, depending on their category, send observers to public meetings of ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies and submit written statements on subjects within their competence. Organizations with general status may also be recommended to make an oral intervention. Consultative status does not give an organization a vote: decisions remain in the hands of the Member States.

For a volunteer-run non-profit such as the CGLQ, meeting conditions of this kind meant gathering the supporting documents, answering the Committee's very specific written questions on short notice, as the organization recounts in its overview of its work at the UN, and then waiting for the sessions at which applications are examined. Each of these steps could be used by hostile States to slow the process down, which is why persistence mattered as much as paperwork.

The NGO Committee is made up of 19 Member States. It does not decide: it sends recommendations to ECOSOC, which grants or refuses status. This two-step mechanism explains how the CGLQ was able to succeed before the Council after a negative recommendation from the Committee.

The United Nations landscape after 2007

The CGLQ's accreditation came at a time when sexual orientation was only beginning to appear on the agenda of the United Nations. A few milestones show how the debate progressed in the following years. On December 18, 2008, the ambassador of Argentina read to the General Assembly a joint statement on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity, which was supported by 66 states at the time of its presentation. On June 17, 2011, the Human Rights Council adopted resolution 17/19, generally considered the first UN resolution devoted specifically to these questions. It asked the High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare a study on discriminatory laws and practices and on acts of violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

On June 30, 2016, resolution 32/2 created, for an initial period of three years, the mandate of an Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. That mandate has since been renewed.

These steps were taken by States, not by non-governmental organizations. But the information that organizations with consultative status bring to the United Nations, in writing or in person, is part of the material on which such debates rely, which helps explain why the question of who is allowed to speak, the question behind the votes of 2007 and 2008, mattered so much.

Civil society expertise also finds a place elsewhere at the UN. In the Universal Periodic Review of the Human Rights Council, each of the 193 Member States is assessed about every four and a half years, on the basis of its national report, a compilation of UN information and a summary of civil society contributions. NGOs can submit written information, whether or not they hold consultative status.

To read further

The overview of the CGLQ's work at the United Nations describes its status today, and the press release of July 2008 recounts the decision that followed for COC Netherlands and FELGTB Spain. For the wider picture, see our analysis of LGBTI rights around the world in 2026, the page on the international LGBT situation and the interview with a jurist on LGBT rights in Canada and in the world.

ILGA panel recording

A recording of Me Yvan Lapointe's speech at the ILGA panel on ECOSOC and the United Nations Human Rights Council (October 2006) is available online.

Audio link: listen to the recording of the ILGA-ECOSOC panel (MPG format)