Zambian activist Juliet Mphande comments on African Commission
by Denis LeBlanc
We recently reported that the African Commission backs LGBT rights.
Owing to its importance for all African nations, we published the
entire text of the resolution in our earlier article. Here, Juliet
Mphande, a human rights, media and peace activist from Zambia, comments
on the resolution, on the message it sends to African governments, and
on its meaning to African persons of diverse sexual orientations and
genders identities and their human rights defenders. This commentary was
originally published by SOGI News.
"Resolution 275 belongs to all Africa’s sexual diverse and gender variant children and their defenders including those who have gone before us ...The devastating consequences of exclusion, bigotry, hate and intolerance on Africa as a whole cannot be overstated."
By Juliet Mphande, 29 May, 2014
Juliet Mphande
Resolution 275, passed during the 55th Ordinary
Session of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR)
in Luanda, Angola (April-May 2014), is a timely and monumental
resolution that intends to respond to eminent threats against
individuals on account of their real or perceived sexual orientation and
gender identity and their defenders.
This
resolution comes at a time when most of the African continent is
engulfed with increased violence against the LGBTQ community and its
defenders notably in countries like Nigeria and Uganda were governments
have moved to strengthen existing draconian laws that promote violence
against LGBTQ individuals and outlaw the important work of human rights
defenders.
The adoption of Resolution 275 coincided with the ACHPR’s 2014-2017 strategic plan that envisages on
‘promoting the protection of human and people’s rights, peace, stability, democracy and good governance as foundations for sustainable development and stable societies in Africa’.
It is also worth noting that this important resolution was passed a few days after the commemoration of the 20th anniversary
of the Rwandese genocide that has prompted most concerned parties to
remind African nations to strengthen their resolve to never allow
another genocide on the continent.
As
an African human rights defender, I celebrate this timely resolution
and the laudable strides that the African Commission is making towards
attempting to resolve the current continental impasse targeted against
sexual and gender diverse persons.
However,
I cannot help but worry that, the fact that ACHPR has decided to lend
its voice towards condemning violations against sexual diverse and
gender variant persons is a major sign of the heightened incidents of
violence and harassment that individuals have, and continue to
experience on the African continent.
It
is also evident for all to see that this message sent to African
governments through an ordinary session of the ACHPR albeit welcome,
will not fix all the problems that the continent faces in this regard.
This
year alone, Nigeria and Uganda have both capitalised on efforts to
strengthen their existing anti-equality and sodomy laws and have further
made it illegal for human rights defenders working on these issues to
continue to do their important work. A further example is Cameroon, a
country where currently a gathering of more than two women can be
interpreted as a lesbian meeting.
In
the year 2013, Cameroon lost a formidable human rights defender – Eric
Lembembe to a violent hate crime, and is one of those countries where
arguably more sexual diverse and gender variant persons have been
arrested over the past one-year but continues to receive very little
media attention.
Take
a trip down town to South Africa, a country with one of the most
progressive constitutions in the World and sexual diverse and gender
variant individuals still endure violent acts of rape and murder with
little redress from their governments, yet again, this is a glaring
example of how the law fails to protect individuals from violence and
often times fatal harm.
In
Gambia, President Jammeh has threatened to eradicate sexual diverse and
gender variant individuals from the country whom he labels as “the
biggest threat to human existence”, at the same time asserting Gambia’s
sovereignty to resist international pressure, which in this case may
include the African Commission, to acknowledge their rights.
In
Zimbabwe, sexual and gender diverse persons have become the brunt of
President Robert Mugabe’s verbal attacks that often border on inciting
both state and non-state actors to enact violence against this
community.
Raiding
the ‘gays’ in Zimbabwe has become a form of cheap sporting event where
law enforcement officers will single out and embark on harassing
existing human rights organisations for their personal amusement.
However, the arrests are real, the fear unimaginable and the
debilitating loss to self-esteem and life regrettably permanent.
In
Zambia, a country often portrayed as tranquil by government forces,
dissenting voices (including those of opposition politicians, media,
civil society leaders and human rights defenders) that challenge the status quo are
relentlessly targeted and often times charged with a myriad of offences
and dragged before the police and the courts without much redress nor
sympathy.
On May 30th,
2014 the World is poised to hear the final verdict in a much
anticipated high profile sodomy case in Zambia where two individuals
have been detained for over a year and denied their fundamental right to
bail, subjected to torture and cruel and inhumane punishment for the
alleged crime of engaging in “consensual” same sex relations. According
to Zambian law, engaging in sodomy acts attracts a penalty of fifteen years
to life. At least twelve other Zambians have been arrested and handed
over to state forces over the past one-year with six currently appearing
before the courts.
However,
these cases out of the many, are a mere drop in the ocean as they are
many more that never make news headlines and this leaves me wondering
how bad things may be in some of our deeply conservative countries like
Somalia, Ethiopia, Mali and Senegal to mention but a few.
Africa - graphic courtesy of BlackLooks.org
The
ACPHR and most African civil society groups have their work cut out for
them and praise for passing this historical resolution cannot be
attributed to the African Commission alone, it was as a result of
innumerable efforts made by beleaguered and uncelebrated human rights
defenders, civil society groups, policy makers from the global South
with unrelenting support received through collaboration with government
agencies and a network of global allies, including the United Nations.
What
does this landmark resolution mean to the African sexual and gender
diverse person and their human rights defenders? What immediate action
does it translate to in real terms for persons who have to live these
realities everyday? Will it lessen the problem of increased violence and
heightened political sponsored impunity in countries like Uganda and
Nigeria? Will it open previously closed doors for their future
protection in environments that are free from violence and harassment?
Will
the ACPHR now have a mandate to hold governments like Cameroon,
Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe to mention but a few accountable
beyond receiving their reports? Or will this resolution be written in
ink as just another resolution passed by an overburdened and often times
underfunded ACPHR whose only power rests in passing resolutions and
then waiting for ‘sovereign’ nations to act or follow their lead?
I
am guessing there’s no immediate answer to these questions as it is
still early days yet and the jury is still out on this one, however for
the African human rights defender and the sexual diverse or gender
variant person facing eminent arrest, violence, and in some cases death,
time has run out and every second that passes is crucial for it may
sadly be their last.
If
there’s any lesson that Africa as a continent can learn from it would
be the Rwandese genocide of 20 years ago and even here it started with
hate, blame, ignorance and intolerance and as a result millions perished
and many others were displaced as a result of their perceived
difference.
Right
now a silent genocide and displacement is happening on the African
Continent even as I write this article, entire communities are turning
against their own, state actors are violating their right to protect by
hiding behind archaic laws, presidents that once swore to uphold
constitutions are abrogating their oath of office by vilifying their own
citizens and currently so called ‘friendly’ nations are turning their
backs on those in urgent and dire need of protection by hiding behind
the law and visa requirements.
Resolution
275 belongs to all Africa’s sexual diverse and gender variant children
and their defenders including those who have gone before us for
defending their humanity, its for those who have fought tirelessly
without fatigue often to their own detriment and those who remain
fighting on the frontlines alongside each other, without any protection
for their dream of a tolerant Africa, an Africa that our forbearers may
have envisioned, where every person shall be protected from being
subjected to unquantifiable indignities and even death, on the basis of
their real or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.
The
devastating consequences of exclusion, bigotry, hate and intolerance on
Africa as a whole cannot be overstated. It’s a sad day when Africa
participates in the breakdown of its own social and moral fabric – a sad
day when governments and political leaders will sacrifice their own for
political gains. It’s a sad day when much as they want, the ACHPR can
only issue sweeping declarations but it’s still a start, albeit a small
one and it’s in this spirit that I celebrate Resolution 275.
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