U.N. calls for end to anti-LGBT laws

NEW YORK, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The top United Nations human rights official called for countries that criminalize homosexuality to repeal the death penalty for consensual sexual relations.

Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a report nations also should standardize the age of consent for homosexual and heterosexual conduct and pass far-reaching laws to ban discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people.

The report released Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, found 76 countries make it illegal to engage in same-sex conduct. The penalty in at least five countries -- Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Iran and Mauritania -- is death, the UN report said.

Charles Radcliffe, the report's lead author, told U.N. Radio about 30 countries have decriminalized homosexuality in the past 20 years.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last year said the world organization rejected discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender.

The report details how LGBT people face hate-motivated violence, torture, detention, criminalization and even death because of perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. It said they, particularly lesbians and transgender women, often are targeted for violence by religious extremists, paramilitary groups, neo-Nazis and extreme nationalists.