South Africa and Sexual Orientation Rights at the United Nations: Batting for Both Sides

In 2011 South Africa led the UN Human Rights Council to adopt the first-ever UN resolution on sexual orientation. In 2014, South Africa was the only African state to support the follow-up to the 2011 resolution. These actions create the impression that South Africa is strongly committed to the international advancement of sexual orientation rights. However, this article scrutinises South Africa's actions on sexual orientation rights at the UN for the period 1995-2015 and will demonstrate South Africa's inconsistency, its frequent failures to support sexual orientation rights internationally, and its various actions against the advancement of these rights. The article sets South Africa's behaviour on sexual orientation rights against broader questions of the place of human rights in South African foreign policy and South Africa's international leadership.