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Botswana | Cameroon
| Egypt | Namibia |
Uganda | Zimbabwe
| Zambia |
Botswana
Homosexuality
is illegal in Botswana, and is punishable by up to seven years in
prison. The Botswana Penal Code deals with homosexual acts in Cap.
08:01: 164, 165, 166, 167, making specific mention of male/male
sexual acts in 167. Though lesbians are not specifically mentioned,
it would appear that they too are discriminated against in Botswanan
society. It is not known at this time if any lesbians are being
prosecuted.
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Cameroon
There are several
laws covering sexual activity in Cameroon. Both same-sex male and
female sexual contact is illegal. Section 347 of the Penal Code
criminalises sexual contacts with members of the same sex with a
penalty of 6 months to 5 years' imprisonment and a fine of up to
CFA 200.000. If one of the persons involved is under the age of
21 the penalty is doubled. The Embassy of Congo in Brussels stated
in 1987 that: "The practice of homosexuality does not exist in Congo".
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Egypt
Homosexuality
is not mentioned in Egyptian law and Sharia laws do not apply. Egypt
has some regulations concerning "offences against public morals
and sensitivities" which could be used against homosexuals. Homosexual
acts are not illegal. The minimum age for heterosexual, lesbian
and gays sex is set at 18. It is safe to assume that the practice
of homosexuality is not condoned by Egyptian society, as Islam is
the most prevalent religion in Egypt and fundamentalism is on the
rise.
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Namibia
At the opening
of the SWAPO Women's Council Congress on December 6, 1996, President
Nujoma of Namibia stated that "all necessary steps must be taken
to combat influences that are influencing us and our children in
a negative way. Homosexuals must be condemned and rejected in our
society." The Rainbow Project, a coalition of Namibian gays and
lesbians, indicated that Prime Minister Hage Geingob had in 1990
assured Namibia's homosexual citizens of their rights under Article
10.2 of the Constitution. Article 10.2 of the Namibian Constitution
states that "no person may be discriminated against on the grounds
of sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, religion, creed or social or
economic status." The growing international trend is to interpret
"other status" to include sexual orientation. Presumably, Prime
Minister Hage Geingob supported that interpretation of the Namibia
Constitution.
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Uganda
Homosexuality
is illegal in Uganda and its criminality is entrenched in Ugandan
common law , it's penal code, article 140 section (a) which states
that, any person who has carnal knowledge of any person against
the order of nature is guilty of an offence and is liable to life
imprisonment; and section (C) states that any person who permits
a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the
order of nature is guilty of an offence and is liable to seven years
imprisonment; He is charged according to article 141 of the penal
code.
Homosexuality
is a taboo in our society and known homosexuals are excommunicated,
even their clans will disown them. They are not welcomed anywhere,
to the extent that people run away from them as soon as rumours
about their sexual orientation start going around, in addition to
that it also difficult for known homosexuals to find housing.
Information
about lesbianism is scant, though to my knowledge no lesbian has
been arrested or expelled from school.
There have been
several cases of gay male students being expelled from schools on
ground that they will contaminate others with their vices, as they
refer to our sexual orientation.
- In July 1999 25 students were suspended from Ntare high school.
- In November
1999 4 gay students were sent home for being gays.
- In October
1999 a 14 year old boy was expelled from school on the ground
of his homosexuality.
This is a violation
of the constitution according to article 30 which states that everybody
has the right to an education. All this has happened without anybody
raising a finger to help or to condemn it.
Even the so
called Human rights activists and Law makers haven't stepped in
to redeem the situation.
- The ruling party came out with a statement that homosexuals
have no place in Uganda.
- The President
called on the police to arrest gays.
- Many gays
have been arrested and imprisoned.
- A Brazilian
gay pastor is serving a 3 years sentence.
- A Ugandan
gay teacher is serving a six years sentence.
- A transsexual,
commonly known as Brenda, the most arrested , detained, tried
and harassed homosexual in the history of Uganda was acquitted
on 16th December 1999 due to lack of evidence after being in jail
for a month and another on trial.
Many suspected
homosexuals either have been arrested or have been harassed and
emotionally tortured . Their businesses have been forced to close
due to the lack of clients. They have become homeless as their landlords
either evict them or they fail to find premises to hire.
Though ,there
have been virtually no press reports on homosexuality since the
beginning of this year, the situation is hostile. We organising
ourselves to try to extricate ourselves from our present predicament.
Author: Tom Mubiru
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Zimbabwe
COUNTRY REPORT
FROM GALZ GALZ celebrates its tenth anniversary in September this
year. The organisation has come a long way: we have established
a drop-in centre which was only a dream in 1990 and the issue of
LGBT rights was placed firmly on the national agenda in 1995 when
Mugabe came out publicly as one of Africa's most virulent homophobes.
GALZ is now relatively well funded and owns the premises in the
Harare suburb of Milton Park from which it operates.
As part of a
general expansion plan during 1999, GALZ facilitated the setting
up of a drop-in centre in Bulawayo to provide services for the LGBT
communities in the South of Zimbabwe. GALZ members in Manicaland
are also discussing the formation of a chapter based in Mutare.
Membership of
GALZ doubled amongst the black community owing to advertising campaigns
in the independent media and the number of people active within
the organisation rose from three or four in 1998 to ten at the end
of last year.
Numerous interviews
were conducted with local and foreign press on the situation facing
lesbian and gay people and the number of people willing to speak
openly in public about their sexuality increased from one to seven
(five men and two women).GALZ continued to release regular statements
on issues relating to sexual minorities including comments on the
prison service, the draft constitution and cases of sodomy appearing
in the state-controlled press. Over half the statements released
in 1999 were published by the independent press.
Poliyana Mangwiro,
the subject of an Amnesty International alert in 1996, traveled
through 13 European countries, the United States and Canada on a
speakers' tour designed to raise awareness about the situation facing
lesbians and gay men in Southern Africa. Her presentations were
warmly welcomed throughout the world. On the legal and political
front, GALZ made a professional submission to the Constitutional
Commission appealing for the inclusion of a sexual orientation clause
in the next constitution. Although the draft constitution contained
many provisions which would have kept GALZ busy challenging homophobic
laws in the courts, the document as a whole was deeply flawed because
it invested far too much power in the office of one individual -
the President. For this reason, although GALZ remained politically
neutral, most members of the LGBT communities voted against the
constitution. The draft was rejected in a national referendum in
February 2000.
GALZ commissioned
a gender policy document arguing that lesbian and gay rights are
gender rights. This document now forms the basis of GALZ's legal
and political strategy as regards gender and sexuality. The GALZ
lawyer, Derek Matyszak, has continued to handle cases of blackmail
which have come to the attention of the organisation. All seven
cases were successfully resolved without the matter coming to the
attention of the police.
During 1998,
it became clear to GALZ that there was little point in trying to
change the minds of the current leadership about LGBT issues. During
1999, GALZ made a special effort to build bridges with the potential
future leadership of Zimbabwe and was encouraged by the responses
of the leadership of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions which
has called for tolerance of lesbian and gay people both in the workplace
and in broader society. The new opposition party, MDC looks set
either to win the next Parliamentary elections or at least gain
a significant proportion of the seats. The MDC has openly stated
that it will pursue a policy of tolerance towards the LGBT communities
and encourage a nationwide education programme around LGBT issues.
GALZ continued
to be active in the field of HIV/AIDS. Through its support group,
GALZ Positive, the organisation provided home-based care training
and nutrition course for members. The safer-sex workshop programme
conducted six workshops in Harare and Bulawayo on subjects such
as sexual activity both within and outside relationships. The safer-sex
programme began a slow process of transformation towards becoming
the GALZ gender programme.
Following GALZ's
attempts to participate at the World Council of Churches 8th general
assembly in Harare in December 1998, GALZ started a fellowship group
for lesbian and gay Christians looking for spiritual support and
affirmation of their sexuality.
In regards
to training, 30 members of GALZ attended a week-long course on small-business
management and ten members from Bulawayo attended the first counselling
module facilitated by the local systemic counselling service, CONNECT.
The administrator of GLOM attended a ten-day human rights training
course provided by IGLHRC in Johannesburg, South Africa.
GALZ is now
active in establishing a gender and sexuality outreach programme
using the platform of AIDS. The aim is to reach out to communities
who are either too fearful or unable to make direct contact with
us. The programme demonstrates GALZ's commitment to taking broader
responsibility when it comes to HIV//AIDS beyond the borders of
its own immediate concerns.
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Zambia
As a former
British colony, Zambia inherited all of Britain's legal systems
and Penal code. While Britain has repealed or modified its legal
system, Zambia still continues to use these archaic laws.
Laws concerning
Homosexuality are in the Penal code under the infamous sodomy laws.
They are put together with acts such as Bestiality under the title
"Unnatural Offences".
TITLE OF UNNATURAL
OFFENCES.
Zambian Penal
code Cap 87 Section 115; Unnatural Offences Any person who
a] has carnal
knowledge of any person against the order of nature OR
b] has carnal
knowledge of an animal OR
c] permits a
male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order
of nature is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for
fourteen years.[As amended by No. 26 of 1933]
The Penal code
of Zambia Cap 87 Section 157 Any male person who whether in public
or in private commits any act of gross indecency with another male
person or procures another male person to commit any act of gross
indecency with him or attempts to procure the commission of any
such act by any male person with himself or with another male person
whether in public or in private is guilty of a felony and is liable
to imprisonment for five years. [as amended by no 26. of 1933]
The Zambian
Penal code does not mention sex between two consenting women but
legally Cap 87 Section 155 covers lesbians.
In Zambia the
public attitude is that not only is it morally wrong since, Zambia
has been declared a Christian nation, but that it is insane, madness
and likened to the behaviour of dogs and animals. Nobody is sympathetic,
young or old, the government, all political parties, all NGO's except
two [ZIMT AND AFRONET], Churches, the whole Zambian community and
half of the homosexual community.
The politicians,
in particular the Vice President and the President have instructed
the police to arrest anybody who supports LGBT people or anyone
who says that they are gay. The National Parliament has spoken strongly
against the LGBT community and says that such abnormal people should
be arrested.
In the last
quarter of 1999 an NGO calling itself Zambia Against People with
Abnormal Sexual Acts [ZAPASA] was formed to fight against homosexuals.
The Zambian
registrar of societies has refused to register LGBT organisations.
LEGATRA( Zambia) has been refused registration several times. LGBT
organisations have continued to operate as social gatherings. They
are failing to raise money for public awareness campaigns, or to
start a National campaign or fund test cases to challenge the Penal
Code and defend the LGBT community. At the moment we are at an impasse.
The majority
of LGBT people are in the closet and refuse to be associated with
the LGBT movement for fear of victimisation in their homes, schools,
colleges or places of work once they are identified as homosexuals.
We have an urgent need to help lesbians because they are most vulnerable
in Zambian society due to its patriarchal nature. The majority of
LEGATRA members are men.
In Zambia we
are hard hit by the AIDS epidemic, as is the rest of Africa. We
have very few counselling centres, in fact there are only two. We
approached the KARA Counselling Centre to ask if they would counsel
our members. They refused. They said that lesbians and gay men should
be counselled by other gay people. They seem to have the idea that
homosexuality is catching, a view shared by the majority of Zambian
society.
A lot of gay
men have been arrested and charged under the Penal code of Zambia,
though after a great deal of publicity the cases are usually dropped
or settled out of court. The courts throw many of these cases out
of court for lack of evidence and usually the parties concerned
agree on terms of payment after one has taken the other to court.
The president
of LEGATRA has been very badly attacked twice. Both incidents happened
last year. One incident was at a seminar in Siavonga, a CIVITAS
meeting. The second was in Lusaka. That attack has seriously injured
one of his eyes. There have been numerous occasions when gay men
have been set upon by people and just attacked.
Transgendered
people are also targeted. Some transgendered people have been publicly
undressed to ascertain their gender. They are beaten, made fun of
and generally ridiculed and there is nothing that we can do about
it.
Zambians are
generally not very militant people and faced with multiple hostilities
the LGBT community closes rank. LEGATRA finds it very difficult
to organise the LGBT community, as they live in perpetual fear of
their lives.
Author: Regina
Numwa
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