Gay Rights Activist Murdered In Sierra Leone
by Beth Shapiro, 365Gay.com Newscenter, New York Bureau.
Originally published: 5 October 2004.
(New York City) FannyAnn Eddy, the founder of the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association and a lesbian rights activist known across Africa has been brutally murdered in the Association's office in the capital city of Freetown.
Eddy, 30, was working alone in the office at the time. It is believed that her assailant or assailants broke in to the premises. She was raped repeatedly, stabbed and her neck was broken.
“FannyAnn Eddy was a person of extraordinary bravery and integrity, who literally put her life on the line for human rights,” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Project at Human Rights Watch.
“Again and again, within her country’s borders and beyond, she drew attention to the harassment, discrimination and violence lesbian and gay people face in Sierra Leone . Now, she has been murdered in the offices of the organization she founded, and there is grave concern that she herself has become a victim of hatred.”
Eddy founded the Sierra Leone Lesbian and Gay Association in 2002. While LGBT citizens of lived closeted and in constant fear Eddy was a visible and courageous figure, lobbying government ministers to address the health and human rights needs of men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women.
In April, she was part of a delegation of sexual-rights activists whom Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) helped attend the annual session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva
Eddy met with her own government’s delegation, and testified to the Commission about lesbian and gay rights in what she called “my beloved Sierra Leone .”
“We face constant harassment and violence from neighbors and others,” she told the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.
“Their homophobic attacks go unpunished by authorities, further encouraging their discriminatory and violent treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”
Eddy and her organization documented harassment, beatings and arbitrary arrests of lesbian, gay and transgender people in Sierra Leone .
The country is emerging from a devastating 11-year civil war that ended in 2002. The war was characterized by egregious human rights abuses by all sides but especially by rebel forces, including widespread rape, murder, torture and limb amputation.
Despite the disarmament of some 47,000 combatants and the successful completion of presidential and parliamentary elections in May 2002, the deep rooted issues that gave rise to the conflict—endemic corruption, weak rule of law, crushing poverty and the inequitable distribution of the country's vast natural resources—remain largely unaddressed by the government.
While there were serious problems with the Sierra Leone Police and judicial system before the conflict, the civil war clearly exacerbated them.
Human Rights Watch Monday night called on the government to hunt down and bring to justice those responsible for Eddy's murder.
“The authorities in Sierra Leone must investigate this crime fairly and fully,” said Long. “They must send a message to a frightened lesbian and gay community that violence against them will not go unpunished.”
Eddy leaves a 10-year-old son.
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