A meeting with Cardinal Pietro Parolin at the Vatican on Friday 5 April 2019 provided a rare opportunity for International Bar Association (IBA) and International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) representatives to seek Pope Francis’ support in decriminalising homosexuality. At the end of the meeting, Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, agreed to pass on to the Pope what was discussed at the meeting, and also to further the dialogue.
The delegation comprised Dr Mark Ellis, IBA Executive Director; the Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG, IBAHRI Co-Chair; Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, IBAHRI Director; and Dr Leonardo Raznovich, an Officer of the IBA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) Law Committee, who convened the visit. The group was accompanied by lawyers, politicians, members of the judiciary, academics and representatives of civil society, totalling approximately 50 individuals.
Baroness Kennedy QC commented: ‘At the heart of our endeavour is human dignity. It should not remain the position that consenting adults are criminalised for consensual same-sex relationships. We need to rid the world of this injustice. Although, on this occasion, we were unable to meet with Pope Francis, I am grateful to Cardinal Parolin for taking the time to hold this meeting, and for the reiteration of the Catholic Church's position in defence of the “dignity of every human person and against every form of violence". However, it is Cardinal Parolin’s agreeing to further dialogue that has delighted me most.’
The IBA stands ready to advance that dialogue as criminal laws remain in place across approximately 70 countries, negatively impacting civic perceptions of justice and human rights.
Dr Ellis said: ‘The law is a very powerful tool that should be used to keep safe citizens of a nation and to ensure that they are treated equally. However, in many jurisdictions across the globe, the law has been employed to sanction state murder and imprisonment of homosexuals. In years to come it will seem inconceivable, and wholly regrettable, that law was used to underpin such discrimination. We must do what we can to decriminalise homosexuality.’
In a sweeping address, Mr Kirby AC CMG thanked His Holiness Pope Francis, the Holy See, and Cardinal Parolin for making the discourse possible, and went on to describe how when he discovered in his youth that he was homosexual, he quickly learned that he was expected to remain silent, ‘even deceptive about my sexual orientation and feelings. I could not speak about them to my parents, to my siblings, to my grandmother, to my colleagues. I was expected to pretend to be different from what I knew to be the truth. That is a very wrong thing to impose on a young person.’ At law school, he found that the deception was supported by criminal laws, though he had not chosen to be homosexual and could not change that reality.
Mr Kirby, a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, stated: ‘There are many issues to be discussed concerning the need for global law reform to address the challenges of violence and discrimination against LGBTI people. Yet, we must address the challenge to the laws that criminalise adult consensual sexual conduct. Such laws should be repealed.’ He added: ‘A clear statement from the Holy See would expedite the process of law reform. It would help to overcome the logjam of inertia and timidity of those with the power to effect change.’ The full text on which Mr Kirby’s remarks were based can be read here.
The IBAHRI opposes the criminalisation of homosexuality and laws that impose penalties for consensual, adult, private sexual conduct. The IBAHRI Council Resolution on sexual orientation and human rights, adopted on 27 May 2010, opposes discrimination, violence and other breaches of human rights directed against people on the grounds of their sexual orientation.
Dr Raznovich, the lead coordinator of a study presented to Cardinal Parolin on the criminalisation of homosexuality, specifically in Latin-America and the Caribbean, said: ‘What we need is a very clear statement, from the Roman Catholic Church at least, that criminalisation of homosexual sexual conduct is wrong and that the Church needs to have a clear policy where, if it believes in human rights, if it believes in the dignity of the human being, as it actively preaches, it needs to make sure that the Church throughout the world has the same response.’
At the conclusion of the historic dialogue, Cardinal Parolin expressed the view that there was ‘much common ground’ between the matters advanced by the delegation and the position of the Holy See, including the need to uphold the essential dignity of each and every human being, and therefore to avoid violence and discrimination.