Homosexuals in Burundi say that their lives have been marked with increased discrimination and fear following the East African country's move to ban homosexual practices. Burundi officially passed the law criminalizing homosexuality in April this year.
The interviews conducted by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch documents the difficulties of being a gay or lesbian in Burundi, including instances of sexual violence, family rejection, police intimidation, and now the daily possibility of imprisonment.
Yves, an HIV-positive gay man who lives in Bujumbura, says that finding work has been a serious challenge for him since the law was passed. He also worries that the new law will discourage those in the gay community from seeking HIV testing and treatment for fear of scrutinization.
Another self-identified gay man from Bujumbura, Théophile, says that he was beginning to see increased tolerance among his friends and family before the issue became politicized. He describes the law as a "step backward."
Burundi received sharp rebukes from much of the international community following the passage of the law. Key donor countries Belgium and The Netherlands have been critical of the move.
Much of the region has laws which criminalize gay relations, but for Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, these laws were largely remnants of the colonial British rule. Burundi's actions received special attention from human rights organizations because under its Belgian colonization, no law existed against gay behavior.
The new law first passed the National Assembly in November 2008. Amid international pressure, the country's Senate overwhelmingly rejected the criminalization provision.
The Burundi National Assembly, though, refused to accept the Senate's rejection, and the law became final in April.
The action by the Burundi government to formally outlaw homosexual activity came as a small group of gays and lesbians began to bring the issue into the public spotlight and attempt to create national discussions about what had always before been a sensitive subject.
Encouraged by some of the recent gains seen globally by gay activists, the Association for Respect and Rights for Homosexuals was formed five years ago in Bujumbura to mainly serve as a support group for gays and lesbians
Since 2007, though the group began to do radio interviews and more actively make its case for increased homosexual rights to the public.
But the group's limited public exposure seems to have created an intense political backlash, at least for the short term.
According to Human Rights Watch researchers, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza personally led the charge to get the law passed. Following the Senate's rejection of the clause, his ruling party organized an anti-gay march in Bujumbura, bussing in protesters from rural areas. His office then reportedly phoned legislators individually to lobby for the April passage.
Some observers partly attributed the president's activism on the issue as a move to weaken political rivals within his own party who had made public statements seen as more liberal on the gay rights issue.
Boris Dittrich, head of homosexual rights advocacy at Human Rights Watch, which actively worked against the law's passage, says that his group has not given up its efforts to have the criminalization rescinded.
"After the next elections, there might be the possibility that new politicians will see that criminalization of homosexual conduct is a violation of human rights and it doesn't lead to anything productive. So we will continue trying to persuade politicians in Burundi to change course," Dittrich said.
The group says that it hopes that the international backlash Burundi received for its action will pressure the government to quietly seek to modify the law after the 2010 elections.
Human Rights Group researchers told VOA that, like similar trends seen in elsewhere in the world, there is a growing tolerance among the country's youth for gays and lesbians, while older generations are much more likely to consider it a taboo.
The progress that homosexuals have seen in the country towards acceptance, though, is mostly limited to its capital city, Bujumbura. The vast majority of Burundians live in rural areas.
Many of the those interviewed by the organization shared similar stories of banishment by family members if their sexual identity was discovered.
Seventy-seven countries in the world have laws against homosexuality, many of them in Africa.
I thought I knew how much lies and untruth play a part in the anti-gay agenda. I was mistaken.
It is not enough to assume that people want to know facts about gay people. Knowing that they are very willing to believe lies, like the ones that Ssempa, Nsaba Buturo and Langa talk about is something that is shocking.
That such lies should be told by provisionaly Christian people is disturbing. That they are told about me makes me want to fight them.
It is not exclusively done in Uganda. But, and I will unashamedly borrow from these, in America. Afterall, that is where our 3 guests came from.
Human Rights Watch is trying to end the lies. (Sounds a bit like what Obama did in his campaign, actually.) Here is the link
and this article
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, today launched a website to confront right-wing lies and distortions repeatedly used to defeat LGBT equality measures. EndtheLies.org will counteract these mistruths with respectful dialogue and grassroots action.
The website’s launch coincides with today's oral arguments before the California Supreme Court on the National Center for Lesbian Rights/American Civil Liberties Union challenge to Proposition 8, the ban on marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Justices will hear differing views on the constitutionality of the measure, as well as the validity of 18,000 marriages performed over the nearly five months when marriage equality was legal in California.
“Again and again, opponents of equality have claimed one shallow victory after another by telling lies about who we are as individuals, as loving couples and as families. These lies must be called out for what they are, not just today when we're reminded of the untruths that fueled Prop 8's passage, but every time the right-wing seeks to derail our progress by spreading distortions and inciting fear mongering," said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “Tools like EndtheLies.org will be critical to our community’s upcoming legislative battles, including passage of the Matthew Shepard Act in 111th Congress.”
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Among the most common right-wing lies that will be refuted on EndtheLies.org are the following:
Lie: If hate crimes laws are passed, pastors will be prosecuted for preaching what the Bible says about homosexuality.
Truth: Pastors will not be held liable for hate crimes based on preaching anti-gay sermons. The First Amendment protects a preacher from being charged as an accessory to a hate crime simply because of their speech. The Matthew Shepard Act only punishes violent crimes, not a person’s speech, beliefs or thoughts. In fact, the legislation contains language specifically protecting free speech.
Lie: Legislation that will provide employment protection based on sexual orientation or gender identity will force churches to hire homosexuals.
Truth: Federal employment non-discrimination legislation is sensitive to religious organizations and their fundamental beliefs and tenets, and includes a broad exemption for these groups, including churches, religious schools and other faith entities.
Lie: Homosexual acts have a key role to play in the spread of all STDs and HIV/AIDS.
Truth: HIV and STDs don’t distinguish by gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic. Statements such as these hamper efforts to prevent the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases by spreading ignorance and misinformation.
Lie: Allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry hurts children because studies show children need a mother and father to do well in life.
Truth: All scientifically reputable studies on the subject of same-sex parenting show that the sexual orientation of a child’s parent does not affect a child. Furthermore, all leading children’s welfare and rights organizations conclude that there is no measurable difference between children raised by loving lesbian and gay families and those raised by different-sex couples.
I will have to go through my previous posts and come up with the Lies that are told about gay Ugandans. Lies like recruitment, paedophiles, evil...!
I mean, believe it or not, the best weapon that we have against Ssempa, Langa, Akinola, Orombi and the ilk is the Truth.
Interesting. In a bid to justify the 'banning of gay marriage', the Nigerian parliament is doing what it once tried to do before. Mounting a broad assault on the human rights of those who are gay or perceived to be gay. The perception is the key, to wipe out this menace.
A common theme of this kind of legislation. The sin, of homosexuality is perceived to be so bad that a whole range of provisions and assaults on basic human rights is mounted, in the name of prosecuting homosexuals. Happened in Uganda, continues to happen...
and now, in Nigeria again.
If this bill passes, I will be liable to prosecution in Nigeria for living with my lover- whether or not the Nigerian police can confirm that I have had homosexual relationships with him. (well, the point is not that I have sex whenever I can damn make it...! It is that the govt in this case is demanding that just the 'suspicion' of me being gay, living in a gay relationship, is enough to condemn me to prison.
Bill Would Assault Rights of All, Reinforce Punishment for Homosexual Conduct
January 26, 2009
This bill masquerades as a law on marriage, but in fact it violates the privacy of anyone even suspected of an intimate relationship with a person of the same sex. It also threatens basic freedoms by punishing human rights defenders who speak out for unpopular causes.
Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch
(New York) - A bill before Nigeria's National Assembly to ban "same gender marriage" would expand Nigeria's already draconian punishments for homosexual conduct and threaten all Nigerians' rights to privacy, free expression, and association, Human Rights Watch said today.
In a letter to President Umaru Yar'Adua, leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate, the Nigerian National Human Rights Commission, and other national, regional, and international bodies, the group urged legislators and the president to reject the bill. The letter urged the country's leaders to combat an environment of stigma and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Nigerians.
On January 15, 2009, the Nigerian House of Representatives voted favorably on the second reading of a bill "to prohibit marriage between persons of same gender." The bill would punish people of the same sex who live together "as husband and wife or for other purposes of same sexual relationship" with up to three years of imprisonment. Anyone who "witnesses, abet[s] and aids" such a relationship could be imprisoned for up to five years.
"This bill masquerades as a law on marriage, but in fact it violates the privacy of anyone even suspected of an intimate relationship with a person of the same sex," said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "It also threatens basic freedoms by punishing human rights defenders who speak out for unpopular causes."
The House of Representatives referred the bill to its committees on Human Rights, Justice, and Women Affairs, which will hold a joint public hearing on it. If the House approves the bill on a third reading, it must then be approved by the Senate and President Yar'Adua.
Members of the House of Representatives reportedly justified the bill by citing links between "sodomy" and HIV and AIDS, making clear that they see the marriage ban as a deterrent to homosexual conduct, though research shows that HIV is most-often spread through heterosexual conduct in Nigeria. Article 214 of the Nigerian Criminal Code Act already provides up to 14 years of imprisonment for anyone who "has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature." As Human Rights Watch documented in a December 2008 report, this law is a Victorian-era provision that remained after the end of British colonial rule.
The proposed law contravenes several provisions of regional and international human rights standards. Article 2 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights promises every individual equal entitlement to rights and freedoms without distinction of any kind; article 3 of the charter guarantees all individuals equality before the law; and article 26 states that: "Every individual shall have the duty to respect and consider his fellow beings without discrimination and to maintain relations aimed at promoting, safeguarding and reinforcing mutual respect and tolerance."
The United Nations Human Rights Committee, which authoritatively interprets the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and evaluates states' compliance with its provisions, found in the 1994 case of Toonen v. Australia that laws criminalizing consensual, adult homosexual conduct violate the covenant's protections for privacy and against discrimination. Nigeria acceded to the covenant without reservations in 1993.
In its letter, Human Rights Watch pointed to grave human rights issues raised by the proposed law:
* The evident intent of the new bill is to extend the already-existing penalties for homosexual conduct.
* Criminalizing "living together as husband and wife" further expands these punishments. They would no longer be limited to sexual acts between people of the same sex, but would potentially include mere cohabitation or any suspected "intimate relationship" between members of the same sex. Far less evidence would be needed for conviction, and prejudice and suspicion would be a basis for arrests. This threatens all Nigerians' right to private life.
* The proposed five-year sentence for those who "abet" a same-sex relationship is greater than the punishment stipulated in the bill for those who enter into a "same gender marriage." This provision could be used to punish anyone who gives any help or advice to a suspected "same gender" couple - anyone who rents them an apartment, tells them their rights, or approves of their relationships. Advocates, civil society organizations, and human rights defenders would be ready targets.
* Under the bill's provisions, anyone - whether Nigerian or foreign - who enters into a "same gender marriage," or simply has a "same gender relationship" in another country and wishes to continue it in Nigeria, could be subject to criminal penalties when they set foot on Nigerian soil. This provides the state with even broader powers to invade people's privacy.
Similar concerns were raised in a joint public statement issued by the Nigerian Bar Association Human Rights Institute, Nigerian nongovernmental organizations, and Amnesty International.
In 2006, Nigeria's minister of justice proposed a similar bill, seeking to criminalize not only same-sex unions but also public advocacy and associations supporting the rights of lesbian and gay people. Sixteen human rights groups - from Nigeria, across Africa, and around the world - had condemned the bill for violating the freedoms of expression, association, and assembly guaranteed by international law as well as the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, and for further jeopardizing the fight against the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the country. That legislation failed to come to a vote in the National Assembly.
Nigeria has the world's third-largest population of people living with AIDS. Data collected by international health organizations suggests that 80 percent of HIV infections in Nigeria result from heterosexual sex, which discredits the equation between "sodomy" and AIDS as drawn by the members of the House of Representatives. The proposed bill would further hinder HIV and AIDS education and prevention efforts in the country by driving some groups affected by the epidemic further underground for fear of violence. In July 2008, the UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS) country report on Nigeria recognized that criminalization of vulnerable populations, including men who have sex with men, makes HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment efforts less accessible to these populations.
Violence against LGBT people is frequent in Nigeria. In September 2008, several national newspapers published articles criticizing a Christian church in Lagos that ministers to LGBT people: the articles included names, addresses, and photographs of members of the congregation and the church's pastor. Police harassment and threats forced the church to shut down and the pastor to flee the country. Some members of the congregation lost their jobs and homes and had to go into hiding, and several of them continue to be under threat of physical harm and harassment.
"This legislation would allow the state to invade people's homes and bedrooms and investigate their private lives, and it would criminalize the work of human rights defenders," said Gagnon. "It is not a ban on marriage, but an assault on basic rights."
Uh, I was just wondering, would I laud Ssempa giving the blessing at the inauguration of the President of Uganda?
No. Of course not.
But, and of course, Orombi would feature. As would many other many non-gay friendly priests and priestesses. Obama has invited Rick Warren. And the gay people of America are not amused.
"Let me get right to the point. Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans. Our loss in California over the passage of Proposition 8 which stripped loving, committed same-sex couples of their given legal right to marry is the greatest loss our community has faced in 40 years. And by inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table.
Rick Warren has not sat on the sidelines in the fight for basic equality and fairness. In fact, Rev. Warren spoke out vocally in support of Prop 8 in California saying, "there is no need to change the universal, historical definition of marriage to appease 2 percent of our population ... This is not a political issue -- it is a moral issue that God has spoken clearly about." Furthermore, he continues to misrepresent marriage equality as silencing his religious views. This was a lie during the battle over Proposition 8, and it's a lie today."
A cheeky thought came to mind. How would Orombi think of me , gayuganda, standing on the podium with him and his excellency during the swearing in? He would most likely be apopletic too! Errr, and I would also reason that it is my right as a Ugandan.
Sigh. It is all a matter of imagery and the meanings we decide to cloud our minds with.Should Rick Warren be 'officially' invited or not? It matters to me, of course. Cause I am gay. But to a pragmatist politician like Obama, how much does it?
gug
UPDATE Huh comrade 27th. Seen your comment vis a vis the rights of the atheist. Very funny!
No wonder I am not a politician. I would never ever be able to satisfy each and everyone. I have just seen this, seems like Obama is determined to balance the act, as well as is actually possible. Check out this.The person who will give the 'benediction' [something like the closing prayer] is this one.
The Rev. Joseph Lowery, 87, is best known as a civil rights icon and co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He also comes from a liberal Christian mainline religious tradition, the United Methodist Church.
In 2000, Lowery, gave what was described as an electrifying speech calling for gay clergy, to the dinner during the general convention of the United Methodist Church, the nation's second largest Protestant denomination.
The arrest of three sexual rights activists during a peaceful demonstration to raise awareness about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues shows the Ugandan government's determination to enforce silence around sexuality and HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch said in a letter to Minister of Justice and Attorney General Edward Kiddu Makubuya.
Although the activists were released on June 6, Human Rights Watch urged the government to drop all charges against the three and to stop future arrests and prosecution of activists working on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.
On June 3, 2008, police in Kampala detained Onziema Patience, Valentine Kalende, and Usaam Mukwaaya while demonstrating during the HIV/AIDS Implementers Meeting-a conference aimed at sharing lessons learned and best practices for HIV/AIDS programs. The three activists were protesting remarks made the day before by the chair of the Uganda AIDS Commission, Kihumuro Apuuli. He had declared that "gays are one of the drivers of HIV in Uganda," and that the government could not afford direct prevention and care.
"Silence around HIV/AIDS kills," said Juliana Cano Nieto, researcher of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "LGBT people do not 'drive' HIV in Uganda, but they have driven many community-based responses. They deserve recognition and inclusion, not repression and jail."
The three activists face charges of "criminal trespass" under article 302 of the Uganda Criminal Code. Even though cosponsors of the Implementers Meeting later provided the activists with appropriate accreditation, the police detained one of the activists for over four hours and charged him with "forgery of documents." All three face a court hearing on June 20, 2008.
Human Rights Watch has repeatedly drawn Ugandan authorities' attention to patterns of abuse based on sexual orientation and gender identity. On August 22, 2007, Human Rights Watch wrote to president Museveni concerning threatening statements made by government officials against LGBT people in Uganda. In an October 11, 2007 letter, Human Rights Watch expressed alarm over authorities' call to tighten enforcement of the country's draconian sodomy law, which punishes homosexual conduct with up to life imprisonment.
"When police silence voices defending public health, the only winner is the virus," said Cano Nieto. "Uganda's once-praised HIV prevention efforts are giving way to prejudice and fear."
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Uh.
Bet Kimbowa is going to rail against this one. As will Ssempa. Why?
HRW is an international NGO that tends to police the world, and takes up the cases of human right abuses. It has a section dedicated to Health/HIV Rights, and also to LGBTI rights.
Ssempa fell foul of HRW. Don’t know when he started railing against it. But they are not friends. Last year, he literally accused HRW of being a homosexual organization, pushing homosexual rights, and imposing them onto poor Ugandans who did not want them. Err, this year, Kimbowa comes up with the same arguments. And he apparently didn’t know that HRW is not a ‘homosexual’ organization. Well, if you listen to only Ssempa, you may be so mistaken.
I know, 27th believes HRW is a neocolonialist organization. He has this conspiracy theory that it is working in the interests of the American Govt. When I pointed out that HRW doesn’t like Guantanamo, I was brushed aside. Well, he is a Communist, so he is allowed the usual biases!
Me? I like HRW. Especially when point out when our lovely governments arrest and detain and imprison us in the name of patriotism.
Few things make me feel patriotic. The result of a lot of thought. I am a Ugandan. An African. It is unfair to be asked to be more patriotic and clannish than other Ugandans and Africans by rejecting what I am, in the name of what others find ok. And too many people use what divides us for their own political and other ambitions.
I have expanded that logic a bit.
It is a big world, a whole world, is Earth. The line drawn on a map to separate me from WildeY is just that. A line, on a map. Yes, an ocean separates me from WhozHe, but our skins have the same tone of melanin. It may differ from WildeY’s, but we are still the same specie. DeT too. We are Human beings.
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • May 30, 2008 - 11:33
A Cairo appeals court has upheld the sentences handed down to five men jailed as part of a 'crackdown' on men who are HIV positive or living with AIDS.
Nine men have been sent to prison so far.
"To send these men to prison because of their HIV status is inhuman and unjust," said Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS programme at Human Rights Watch.
"Police, prosecutors, and doctors have already abused them and violated their most basic rights, and now fear has trumped justice in a court of law."
As in previous cases, authorities forced the detainees to undergo HIV tests without their consent.
Four of the five convicted last month tested positive.
They were charged with the "habitual practice of debauchery," a term which in Egyptian law includes consensual sexual acts between men.
President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda: for denying people privacy and security. In August 2007, after a coalition of LGBT organizations in Uganda launched a campaign called "Let Us Live in Peace," the government showed it had no intention of doing so. Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo publicly called homosexuality "unnatural"; while dismissing claims that police harassed LGBT people, he warned, "We know them, we have details of who they are." The deputy attorney general called for the arrest of gays and lesbians, "because homosexuality is an offense under the laws of Uganda."
LGBT Ugandans have faced official harassment for years. In 2005, authorities raided the home of human rights defender Juliet Victor Mukasa and forced her into hiding. Government officials have censored media discussions of homosexuality and threatened to respond to any advocacy for LGBT rights with prison terms.
A colonial-era sodomy law in Uganda punishes homosexual conduct with life imprisonment. Worldwide, over 85 countries criminalize consensual homosexual conduct. Such laws give governments like Uganda's a pretext to invade people's private lives and deny them an essential right: to live in peace.
Saturday was a beautiful day. Yet there was something in the New Vision which lifted my mood and made me want to sing the whole day.
There was this article, which I am lifting whole from the paper.
UNBELIEVABLE! These could be the only kind words from the ethics and integrity state minister, Dr. James Nsaba Buturo, to homosexuals.
He has come across as anti-gay on many occasions, prompting the gay-rights activists to push for his blacklisting. They were claiming that Buturo was violating the human rights of some citizens and peddling homo-phobia.
Could this be the reason why he is now singing a different tune? Buturo has criticised medical practitioners who discriminate against homosexuals living with HIV/AIDS. He said that although the Constitution does not condone homosexuality, they should not be denied medical facilities.
“I condemn medical practitioners who deny Anti-retro-viral drugs to gays. No one wants to acquire HIV/AIDS. All human beings are equal before God,” Buturo said in an interview on Monday.
Dr James Nsaba Buturo. A PhD in economics, I believe. A Christian who is fundamentalist. He has not been kind to us ‘homos’ as he calls us.
I do welcome even this small change in his mind. I don’t know how genuine it is. Is it? I do not know. The things that he has said and done in the name of ‘resisting homosexuality’ are many.
In 2004, as State Minister for Information, and official government spokesperson, he held a press conference and informed the country that he had learnt of a despicable plot to promote homosexuality in the country, in the guise of preventing HIV, and it was being promoted by UNAIDS. His words were very unkind. UNAIDS being a diplomatic institution, was sent a strongly worded protest note. The then Country Representative of UNAIDS was ‘relocated’ to some other country.
Since that time, no NGO dared to touch HIV prevention amongst gays in the country. If the UNAIDS Country Rep was not immune, then who was immune to the government’s wrath?
The things that Mr Buturo has said in the previous 3 months since the press conference have been incredible venom. He wondered how on earth we could have held a press conference when we were ‘illegal’, what was the police doing? He repeatedly said that he knew us and was ready to move on us. He went to the demonstration against homosexuality as the government representative. Homosexuality was against 3 laws, that of god, the country, and morality? He told us to migrate out of the country. That we were unacceptable. We have no rights according to him.
The vitriol flowed, the venom envenomed the debate. Some of the people who would have supported him were really surprised. It was too much hate in the name of love.
I called him a homophobe. A person with an irrational hate or fear of homosexuality. I just cannot understand why he hates me so much when he does not really know me. Human Rights Watch attacked the government, saying that it was sponsoring Homophobia.
That was hardly three months ago.
And suddenly, his tune has changed. The news editor found it unbelievable. I did too. Why? Why of a sudden does he find that we are human beings? Why does he of a sudden find that we do deserve treatment at the hospitals? Why is he blaming doctors now? How come he finds that no one, (not even homosexuals), deserves to get HIV?
Of course what he said was mainly political. I have not heard of any doctors denying us treatment. But I know that he is one of the major reasons why we still have no national programme to prevent HIV amongst Kuchus in Uganda.
It was a brilliant day, Saturday. A very beautiful day, inside and out.
