The United Nations is recognising the gay marriages of all its staffers, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has announced.
Previously, the United Nations only recognised the unions of staffers who came from countries where gay marriage is legal, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said yesterday.
"This is a step forward that many of the staffers at the United Nations had been seeking for some time," Haq said.
The new policy became effective June 26, and will impact the UN's approximately 43,000 employees worldwide. Employees of separate UN agencies, such as the children's agency UNICEF and the UN cultural agency UNESCO, are not affected by the change in policy, Haq said.
According to the Pew Research Centre, gay marriage is legal in 18 countries, plus parts of the United States and Mexico. But prejudice remains deep in many countries. An extreme case is Uganda, which in February passed a law making gay sex punishable by a life sentence.
