AIDS-Free World

23 December 2010

H.E. Dr. Jean Ping

Chairperson

African Union Commission

African Union Headquarters

Addis Ababa

Ethiopia

Excellency:

We are writing to express our grave concern about the recent escalation of homophobia throughout the African continent. A vocal minority spouting hatred, paranoia, and intolerance is dominating public discourse. In response, increasing numbers of parliaments are attempting to criminalise homosexuality, and increasing numbers of African leaders are publicly endorsing this criminalisation. Currently, over two-thirds of countries in the African Union have legislation that criminalises homosexuality. AIDS-Free World is disturbed by the silence of AU leaders in the face of this discrimination, and we urgently call upon the African Union to hold a special session to address the issue.

We do not believe it is the intention of the African Union to condone this homophobia and discrimination, given the strong commitments to human rights and equality enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which states unequivocally that ‘All peoples shall be equal; they shall enjoy the same respect and have the same rights.’ The African Union’s Constitutive Act and the Maputo Protocol clearly enumerate respect for human rights as well, and this year the AU chose to focus on non-discrimination in its celebration of International Human Rights Day.

We also do not believe that it is the intention of the African Union to take a devastating step backwards in the fight against AIDS. Yet that is precisely what will happen if this growing homophobia is not addressed strongly and swiftly. When homosexuality is demonised – whether through hate speech, discriminatory legislation, or criminalisation – lesbians and gays are driven underground into unsafe and often terrifying situations, their prospects of receiving counseling and testing to establish their HIV status diminish drastically, and it becomes virtually impossible to reach them with the information, education, and condoms that can prevent the spread of HIV. We know that rates of HIV amongst men who have sex with men are already higher than rates in the general population. Enabling or sanctioning homophobia will only exacerbate the crisis.

Recent news stories paint a wrenching picture of the tide of anti-gay sentiment rising throughout the continent:

In Uganda, hatred stemming from fear and paranoia is causing individual citizens to attack homosexuals verbally and physically. Most recently, a young journalist outed numerous lesbians and gay men in a tabloid magazine that quickly attracted local and international attention, placing their lives in imminent danger. The newspaper ran photographs of the men and women under the subheading ‘Hang Them.’
Just this month, as Ghana undergoes a constitutional reform process, self-appointed spokespersons have been attempting to limit the rights of the lesbian and gay community in order to ultimately criminalise homosexuality altogether. Without strong leadership from elected officials, these voices may succeed in codifying discrimination within the new constitution.

Reports from Senegal detail beatings and arrests of gay citizens, as well as desecration of their graves.
In Cameroon, women suspected of being lesbian have been targeted for rape and risk losing custody of their children.

The list goes on. Even more frightening is the fact that prominent leaders in Africa have started to respond to this vocal minority, legitimising and sanctioning the bigotry:

In 2009, Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill called for homosexuals to be put to death. The bill has stalled in committee, but Parliamentarian David Bahati is still pushing for it to pass.
In March 2010, Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe stated in a public speech, ‘Those who engage in homosexual behavior are just crazy.’ Mr. Mugabe has previously asserted that homosexuals are ‘lower than dogs or pigs.’ Government-sanctioned homophobia led to a police raid and arrests at the offices of the human rights organisation ‘Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe’ in May of this year.
Also in May 2010, President Mutharika of Malawi pardoned a young gay couple sentenced to 14-year jail terms for ‘gross indecency’ and ‘unnatural acts,’ yet he publicly stated, ‘these two gay boys were wrong - totally wrong’ and did nothing to prevent future detentions. Discrimination continues unabated in the country, and the Malawian parliament just passed a bill to criminalise homosexuality between women as well as men.
In October 2010, Congolese MP Ejiba Yamapia began gathering support for a bill he formulated that would criminalise certain ‘unnatural sexual practices,’ which he described as including same-sex relations.
On November 28, 2010, Kenya’s Prime Minister Odinga stated at a public rally that homosexual activity ‘will not be tolerated,’ and that ‘men and women found engaging in homosexuality will not be spared.’ Mr. Odinga ordered police to arrest and bring criminal charges against anyone engaging in sex with someone of the same gender. Homosexuality remains illegal in Kenya and can result in up to 14 years imprisonment and hard labour.

This week, the United Nations voted to restore ‘sexual orientation’ as a protected category in a resolution condemning extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary killings. There has been understandable celebration, yet the victory is cruelly marred. With the exception of Angola, South Africa, Cape Verde, and Rwanda, the continent of Africa is not aligned with the majority of Member States. More than half of the nations that voted against the inclusion of sexual orientation were African. The scourge of anti-homosexuality continues to infect the continent.

There is evidence that elsewhere around the world, leaders are starting to realise that discrimination is only coming from a fearful minority, and that most citizens believe in respect for human rights. Leaders are responding accordingly and have stopped casting homophobic votes, as seen in the case of the Commonwealth Caribbean this week: only St. Lucia supported the exclusion of ‘sexual orientation’ as a protected category in the United Nations resolution.

Excellency, in rectifying the silence of the African Union during the early years of the AIDS pandemic, AU leaders rightly spoke out time and again against stigma and discrimination. We hope that sentiment will not be limited to people who are already HIV-positive. Knowing that discrimination increases vulnerability to HIV, we must fight discrimination against all people, including those at risk of HIV as well as those who are living with the virus. It is the only way to stem the tide of the pandemic.

History has shown how difficult it is to undo the damage caused when a minority pushes for institutionalised bigotry and succeeds. Laws in the United States that criminalised sex between people of different races were similarly based on the hatred that stems from fear and ignorance. The world has now seen that once prejudice is legitimised and codified, it is a long and difficult struggle to bring societies back to acceptance, civility, and full recognition of human rights. The toll extracted is immense, both on the individuals affected and societies as a whole, but it is something that enlightened leaders can foresee and forestall.

We therefore call upon the African Union to take immediate action to stop this contagion of homophobia. AIDS-Free World strongly urges the African Union to call a special session as quickly as possible to confront the problem.

Respectfully,

Paula Donovan; Stephen Lewis

Co-Directors, AIDS-Free World

cc: Heads of State, Africa

cc: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

cc: National AIDS Councils, Africa

cc: Country Coordinating Mechanisms, Africa

cc: Professor Michel Kazatchkine, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

cc: Mr. Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS