“Let me tell you what Mary Robinson, the former Irish President, said these guidelines are based upon.
“According to her, the norms enunciated in these guidelines are ‘consistent with fundamental human rights and fundamental freedoms.…’
What are the fundamental rights that Mary Robinson says all nations must recognise?
“One, they include the repeal of all laws condemning homosexual sodomy.
“Two, the legalisation of same-sex marriages.
“Three, mandatory and graphic sexual training for children. She has three paragraphs on the last of these. She says the training has to include instruction, beginning when the child's at the age of 10, on how to engage in sexual intercourse with members of the same sex. Since this will of necessity be graphic, she says, ‘such materials should be exempted from pornography and obscenity laws.’
“Four, she says that all laws regulating prostitution must be eliminated. Prostitution, in short, must be legalised.
“Five, she says that the age of consent for all sexual activities should be lowered to 14.
“Finally, and most troublingly, she says: ‘There must be creation of penalties for anyone who vilifies individuals engaged in same-sex relationships.’ In short, it's not enough simply to normalise, in one fell swoop, all of international law related to homosexuality. We have to provide penalties.”
(Richard Wilkins, a professor of law at Brigham Young University in the United States, was recently in Australia to warn of the threat to domestic legal and political systems posed by the International Criminal Court. LAW: International Criminal Court: the dangers, August 11, 2001.)