Malawi reviewing 'bad' laws, including sodomy law

By Paul Canning

Malawi's government announced yesterday that it was reviewing a number of laws, including its anti-gay and anti-lesbian laws.

The announcement led to the headline 'Malawi makes U-turn on disputed laws on media, gays' in local newspaper Maravi Post.

Malawi’s Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Ephraim Chiume said in a statement:

“In view of the sentiments from the general public and in response to public opinion regarding certain laws, the government wishes to announce to the Malawi nation that it is submitting the relevant laws and provisions of laws to the Law Commission for review.” 

In July there were protests against the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika. The protests were driven by a deteriorating economy but also a ban on publications deemed “contrary to the public interest” and the government’s ban on demonstrations.

Mutharika, naming NGO leaders as inciting riots, said at the time:

"I will also hunt you in your homes. You will not hide, I will smoke you out, muziwanso. You should go back to your fathers and mothers from the West, who have sent you."

The government was blaming the economic situation on a withdrawal of aid from the UK and other countries. The UK's action followed a diplomatic spat with Malawi after internal UK Foreign Office documents on the deteriorating human rights situation in that country were made public.

The UK said the aid withdrawal was because of the government's bad governance and moves against civil society and the media. Malawi however blamed it on NGOs supporting LGBT human rights. Opposition protests were called 'gay rights rallies'.

Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) bulletins said that organisers of the demonstrations wanted to use photographs of demonstrators to show to foreign aid donors that Malawians support gay rights and same-sex marriages. A presidential spokesperson Hetherwick Ntaba said that organisers of the demonstrations have been receiving “huge” sums of money from gay rights bodies outside the country.

Laws to be reviewed include those allowing bans on publications and demonstrations, warrant-less searches and a law that doesn’t allow citizens to sue the government.

The government has not said how long the law review will take or when it will start.

Related articles

• In Malawi, LGBT rights activists 'in hiding' (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Malawi, more scapegoating of LGBT as riots erupt (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• US warns Malawi on aid after riots - AFP (news.google.com)
• Report: The state of LGBT human rights in Malawi (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Report: The state of LGBT human rights in Malawi

Image via Wikipedia

Shadow Report on the Implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in Malawi

• Submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Committee by the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP) and the Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation (CHRR) and with the assistance of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). 

• For 25 October 2011 UN Human Rights Committee Meeting, Geneva.

The shocking events of the 20th and 21st of July 2011, when the Government of Malawi turned on its own people - harassing, beating and killing opposition demonstrators - clearly illustrates the climate of fear and rights abuse which currently exists within the State. There is an urgent need for meaningful action from the Human Rights Committee so that all people in Malawi can access and enjoy their most basic Covenant rights.

The current human rights situation in Malawi is extremely serious and possibly deteriorating. While Malawi is a signatory of the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights ("the Covenant” or “the ICCPR") and has a relatively progressive constitution, egregious human rights violations are commonplace and the people of Malawi regularly experience discrimination, violence, and even death on numerous grounds, ranging from sex, sexual orientation, national origin, political belief, political expression, professional activity, prisoner status and/or HIV/AIDS status.

The most serious rights violator in Malawi is the President, Bingu wa Mutharika. His administration acknowledges, encourages and organises the intimidation and unlawful killing of individuals or groups which challenges the regime. He has incited his followers to take to the streets with arms, allowed the police to beat and kill members of the opposition, crushed media dissent, and broken up peaceful assemblies with deadly force. President Mutharika's regime ignores the authority of the national courts system, incites prejudice and hatred of vulnerable minorities and relegates women to the status of second class citizens.

The Parliament of Malawi, dominated by an overwhelming majority of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), uses the country’s legislative system to legitimize and extend the current climate of violence and oppression. Recent legislative acts include allowing the police to search property without a warrant, allowing the Minister for Information to arbitrarily ban media publications and prohibiting two consenting females from engaging in consensual sexual intercourse.

Malawi is a country where violence and fear increasingly pervades all areas of society, where human rights defenders are beaten and even killed, where individuals who attempt to affect change are met with swift and brutal force. The fact that the Government of Malawi has chosen not to submit a report to the Committee demonstrates the value which the country’s administration place on upholding human rights. There is an urgent need for the Committee to take strong, appropriate action so that the people of Malawi can enjoy their full Covenant rights to which they are entitled.

LGBT human rights in Malawi

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UK Minister confirms aid redirection policy in homophobic countries

Picture DFID

Source: Huffington Post

UK International development secretary Andrew Mitchell has confirmed the UK government will withhold aid from countries with homophobic policies such as Malawi - and denied it will punish the poorest.

Speaking on Sky News 16 October, he said that it was part of the coalition's "human rights" agenda.

“We have been very clear on this – where we think Governments do not have respect for human rights, it will have a big effect on the way we carry out this funding. Taking money away from Governments does not mean you do not support that country. You find other mechanisms for trying to help the poorest with food, education and health care as well as building up business structures."

“It is not about taking money away from countries but finding other mechanisms to help them. We take a very clear line. In a number of countries in Africa that [discrimination against homosexuality has concerned us. In Malawi when they kicked out the British High Commissioner we looked at the whole nature of that relationship.

"We were aware there had been some expenditure by the President. We were aware there had been some lack of human rights – the intention to criminalise lesbianism – all took a part in my decision to stop funding the government centrally.

“What we don’t want to do is take money away from very very poor Malawians who England, and particularly Scotland have a strong relationship with.”

Although the new policy has been welcomed in the UK, many 'global south' gay activists have expressed concern about its possible impact.

Related articles

• Cautious welcome, concern as UK ties foreign aid to LGBT human rights (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• UK Foreign aid policy: LGBT Ghanians need 'more than speeches' (madikazemi.blogspot.com) 
• In Malawi, more scapegoating of LGBT as riots erupt (madikazemi.blogspot.com) 
• In Malawi, LGBT rights activists 'in hiding' (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Cautious welcome, concern as UK ties foreign aid to LGBT human rights

Picture DFID

By Paul Canning

In a move which has surprised many the British government has gone public on a new policy of tying foreign aid to a country's LGBT human rights actions. The new policy has received an enthusiastic welcome in the UK but activists in the 'global south' are more cautious.

The move appeared in the right-wing, anti foreign aid tabloid the Mail on Sunday but has been confirmed to the author by a source, who says the decision on the new policy was made in the summer.

The Mail article names three African countries whose aid is under threat; Uganda, Malawi and Ghana. All three countries sodomy laws are relics of British colonisation - and this was named as a highly relevant point by Kofi Mawuli Klu, the Executive Commissioner of Panafriindaba, an African think tank, in a heated discussion about the foreign aid move on BBC Radio 10 October.

Malawi has already had its aid cut by the UK. Although LGBT issues were not mentioned by the UK - the cut was described as being due to increasing authoritarianism - the Malawian government explicitly blamed local LGBT human rights supporters for the aid cut.

Aid cut threats to Uganda because of increased repression of LGBT and the potential passage of the 'Kill gays' Anti-Homosexuality bill are believed to be being made behind-the-scenes.

The Mail article claims that a British Minister explicitly threatened aid cuts to Ghana because of that country's increasingly anti-gay atmosphere, which has been highlighted internationally by one regional Minister's threat to 'arrest all gay people'.

However a fact-sheet made available to journalists during a Media Open Day at the British High Commission in Accra 29 March said that the UK government would increase its development assistance to Ghana in the next four years (2011-2015) to £375 million (US $587m).

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, specifically singled out Malawi for mention in remarks delivered to a Downing Street reception in June for Gay Pride.

He claimed that the British coalition government's commitment to not cut its foreign aid budget despite its austerity programme meant it carried "moral authority" when speaking to 'global south' countries about "what we expect from them".

"I’m very proud of the fact we [put] huge pressure on the leader of Malawi about an issue in that country but I’m convinced we can do more. We have got the ability to speak to African leaders, African governments, about this issue that I know concerns everyone here tonight. And it concerns me," he said.

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One step back in lawsuit against Botswana sodomy law

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Botswana Gazette

By Isaac Pheko

The controversial case in which Caine Youngman is suing the government over anti-sodomy laws has been withdrawn to strategise and consult with stakeholders.

Youngman and the Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana (LeGaBibo) want to collect additional evidence in their challenge of Section 164 of the Botswana Penal Code which criminalizes sexual conduct between adults of the same gender.

Youngman with the support of LeGaBibo wants Section 164 declared unconstitutional, and repealed on the grounds that it discriminates against persons on the basis of their sexual orientation.

An attorney representing Youngman, Monica Tabengwa, said that the law is a legacy of British colonialism and has since been de-criminalized in Britain. She was speaking at a press briefing in Gaborone on Monday to announce the withdrawal of the case.

“This case has attracted a lot of publicity and interest locally and internationally. Good things have emerged from this goodwill, “she said. Tabengwa explained that there were people willing to offer legal assistance and supporting the case by deposing affidavits to show that Batswana are ready.

“We are proud to announce that our lead counsel in this matter going forward is Advocate Marcus Gilbert, a SA advocate with years of experience in public interest in litigation,” she said.

Tabengwa explained that Gilbert was lead counsel in the case of the South African Coalition of Gays and Lesbians seeking to enforce constitutionally guaranteed rights over a statute that was clearly in contradiction, “she said.

She stressed that countries like Lesotho and Swaziland are observing Botswana to see the outcome of the case.

“We know Malawi is violating people’s rights based on their sexual orientation. If we lose, they will go ahead with their violations,” she said

One of the lawyers representing Youngman, Uyapo Ndadi, said that it is important to get support from Batswana; even some parliamentarians and opinion leaders have wished them well with the case.

“We are not giving up on the case. We are only retreating to bounce back in a more solid way,” he said.

Past newspaper reports have stated that in 2005 LeGaBibo attempted to register their association with the registrar of companies but their application was turned down, on the grounds that the Republican constitution does not recognize homosexuals.

Related articles

• Botswana Lgbt Organisation to Hold First Agm and Elections (mask.org.za)
• Lgbti Component in New Botswana Initiative on Sex Work (mask.org.za)

In Malawi, LGBT rights activists 'in hiding'

Mwakasungula (left), Trapence (right)

By Paul Canning

UPDATE, 27 July: We have received a report that Mwakasungula is not in hiding and that no actual warrants have been issued. However is is quoted in today's New York Times that he is in hiding and that his lawyer has informed him that charges are being prepared. We also understand Trapence and other NGO leaders have received death threats.

Malawi's two leading LGBT human rights advocates are reportedly in hiding after being threatened with arrest for 'treason'.

Undule Mwakasungula, Human Rights Consultative Commitee (HRCC) chairperson, and executive director of Centre for Development of People (CEDEP), Gift Trapence, are part of a group of NGO leaders driven underground in the wake of last week's protests against the government of President Bingu wa Mutharika.

Mutharika, naming NGO leaders, has said:

"I will also hunt you in your homes. You will not hide, I will smoke you out, muziwanso. You should go back to your fathers and mothers from the West, who have sent you."

According to South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign (TAC):

"[Gift] is in good spirits. He notes that he and the other are safe where they are now. He says the best thing we can do is to mobilize international partners to pressurize the government to reconsider the arrest warrants and to ensure their safety."

They say that he has been visited by the American ambassador to Malawi, Peter Bodde.

The two leaders are the strongest advocates for LGBT human rights in Malawi and have long been targeted by the government. The government has blamed withdrawals of foreign aid on them personally. In March after Mwakasungula and Trapence delivered a petition to the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, on behalf of Malawian civil society, President Mutharika said:.

"As I speak now there are a group of 15 human rights activists who are roaming in Europe saying there are human rights abuses in Malawi because we are not allowing them to teach revolution."

Last week's protests against a deteriorating economy resulted in 18 deaths and drew widespread condemnation. Malawi's government and media labeled the opposition protests a "gay rights rally". Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) bulletins said that organisers of the demonstrations wanted to use photographs of demonstrators to show to foreign aid donors that Malawians support gay rights and same-sex marriages. A presidential spokesperson Hetherwick Ntaba said that organisers of the demonstrations have been receiving “huge” sums of money from gay rights bodies outside the country. 

Mutharika has encouraged his supporters to violence. During the protests Mwakasungula was beaten and Trapence arrested then released. According to a witness, reporter Kondwani Munthali: "[Police] want “Undule” and they take turns beating him, one after another whipping him with gun butts."

TAC say that Trapence is "one of the few Malawians to publicly stand up for the rights of not only the LGBTI community but also sex workers. He is one of the only researchers to conduct researchers into the HIV and health needs of both these groups."

Related articles

• In Malawi, more scapegoating of LGBT as riots erupt (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Cameron's Africa LGBT rights comments are rhetoric and could backfire (madikazemi.blogspot.com) 
• Malawi government threatens pro-LGBT groups, activists over foreign aid withdrawals (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Top Malawi activists in hiding (bbc.co.uk)
• Malawi president given ultimatum (english.aljazeera.net)

In Malawi, more scapegoating of LGBT as riots erupt

Mwakasungula (left), Trapence (right)

By Paul Canning

UPDATE, 25 July: Undule Mwakasungula and Gift Trapence are amongst other civil society leaders reported to be in hiding or to have fled Malawi. President Mutharika: "I will smoke you out."

Last week the British government announced that it was withdrawing budget support from the Malawian government. The move followed a diplomatic spat but the UK Foreign Office (FCO) blamed Malawi's increasing authoritarianism for their decision.

Germany, Denmark and other countries have cut their aid to Malawi citing a poor governance record.

Malawi has form on blaming LGBT for aid withdrawals, and some governments and bodies have cited concerns on LGBT rights in their consideration of aid to the country - but they have never been more than a footnote to the same sorts of issues cited by the FCO.

Now Malawi's government and media has labeled an opposition protest a "gay rights rally". It banned today's protest against the state of the economy, which resulted in riots and at least one death. Yesterday, ruling party supporters, who have been encouraged to violence by President Bingu wa Mutharika, threatened anyone who would dare join the protests and attacked two independent radio stations.

Of the two civil society leaders who have been most outspoken in support of LGBT human rights who took part in the protests, Undule Mwakasungula Human Rights Consultative Commitee (HRCC) chairperson was beaten and and executive director of Centre for Development of People (CEDEP) Gift Trapence arrested then released.

Mark Bromley of the Council for Global Equality said:

“Once again we see that an increasingly authoritarian government is trying to deflect attention away from legitimate public grievances and economic hardships by blaming the protests on gay rights supporters. The protests today were not about gay rights, they were about good governance and human rights for all citizens.”

It was the state-run Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) that labeled today's anti-government protests as "gay" A presidential spokesperson Hetherwick Ntaba said that organisers of the demonstrations have been receiving “huge” sums of money from gay rights bodies outside the country. The MBC bulletins have been saying organisers of the demonstrations want to use photographs of demonstrators to show to donors that Malawians support gay rights and same-sex marriages. An opposition MP joined in the gay bashing by saying that although it was using gays as a scapegoat to deflect attention from mismanagement, the ruling party was 'infested' by gay people.

In April the MBC broadcast an editorial comment, read by the station’s news analyst Mzati Mkolokosa, saying that the MBC called on Malawians to 'fight against such activists' saying they are 'not patriotic'.

“They don’t know how much our forefathers suffered to get ourselves decolonized. We are not yet free up to date, yet someone wants to sell us back to the colonialists. Perhaps they haven’t studied global politics and need to be decolonized themselves. But let’s fight against them before they succeed in handing us over to the colonialists,” MBC said. 

Trapence says that more than 20 organisations from all 3 regions organised the July 20 demonstrations. The organisations said at a press conference that allegations from government that the nationwide demonstrations are actually for gay rights to impress western donors were "cheap propaganda".

“President Mutharika will retire in three years and is working hard to protect his image by creating a fertile ground for his brother Peter Mutharika to stand in the next elections,” says Simekinala Kaluzi of Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) Malawi.

“He will not tolerate any critical voices and wants the media and civil society to only say good things about him and his Government," Kaluzi added. "Since his re-election in 2009 we have seen a serious shrinking of space for freedom of expression and association.”

President Mutharika does have some Western support. The American Christian conservative group Family Research Council (FRC) has asked supporters to pray for Malawi's laws criminalizing gay sex, RightWingWatch.com reported.

• Images from the protests

Related articles

• Cameron's Africa LGBT rights comments are rhetoric and could backfire (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Queer Malawi: Untold Stories (iglhrc.wordpress.com)

Video: Hard gay times in Malawi

Source: Aljazeera

Reporter does not speak in English but the Malawian gay couple interviewed do.



Source: IRIN/Plus News

Africa is generally not a safe place to have a same-sex relationship. You can be shunned by society, beaten up, thrown in jail, or worse. In Malawi you can get 14 years in prison with hard labor.

In a bold move, Malawi's Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP) and South Africa's Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA) have collected the stories of 12 lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) women and men and published them in a book, Queer Malawi. The book was compiled in the shadow of the high-profile 2010 trial of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, two Malawian men charged with sodomy and indecency after they became engaged to be married in December 2009. The couple was found guilty but later released on condition that they have no further contact.

Fear is a theme that runs through the stories in Queer Malawi - fear of not being accepted by family and community, of violence and arrest. Human rights activists noted that the trial heightened anxiety in Malawi's underground LGBT community and compromised HIV prevention efforts among men who have sex with men (MSM).

"There is the painful story of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, who were arrested because they were very much in love," wrote "Shy Amanda", a gay man using a pseudonym, as do the other authors in Queer Malawi. "My boyfriend and I are afraid to stay together.  We only visit on weekends. When I see a policeman passing by my home I fear that maybe today they are coming to take me."

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The globalisation of homophobia - examining the evidence

Davis Mac-Iyalla

By Davis Mac-Iyalla

Over the last couple of years we have heard a lot about the bill proposed by Ugandan MP David Bahati, that has become known as the 'Kill gays' bill. It has rightly drawn a lot of international condemnation. It is one thing to still have anti-gay laws on statute books and enforcing them while we can see gradual changes in the population that suggest in the long run things will improve. It is quite another to be introducing new legislation in this day and age, including introducing new death penalty punishments for homosexuality. It has become the focal point for a focus on what appears to be spreading homophobia in some places. What is really going on? Why is it that in some countries social progress is being made, whereas in some countries in Africa in particular, people seem to be trying to take a giant leap backwards?

It's obvious that it is not just what the law says that determines how gays are treated in any given country. If we take South Africa as an example, it was the first country in the world to specifically enshrine rights for gay people in its constitution. Yet recently there was a 'corrective rape' and murder of a lesbian LGBT activist in South Africa amid a backdrop of rampant verbal abuse and threats against gay people. Despite the differences in the legal framework with respect to the rights of gay people, the behaviour of many people in Uganda and South Africa towards gay people is the same. Is there a common factor?

I think there is: Poverty is widespread in South Africa still, as there is in many parts of Africa, and just as there is in Uganda. In fact, when we look around and at different places in history over many years, it is not difficult to spot that generally speaking there is a greater tolerance of gay people in environments where people do not feel they have to fight over inadequate access to basic resources necessary for survival, and where people have felt that their survival is not in doubt over a long period of time.

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Uganda 'Kill Gays' bill is back: report

Ugandan tabloid newspaper

By Paul Canning

According to a report from BBC's Africa network the 'Kill Gays' Anti-Homosexuality (AHB) bill has been carried over to the new Ugandan Parliament.

Jim Burroway reports that BBC Network Africa’s Joshua Male said yesterday that:

The 9th Parliament has inherited three controversial bills that form part of its deliberations. They include the Anti-Homosexuality Bill which was shoved at the eleventh hour of the 8th Parliament, the Marriage and Divorce Bill which, among other things, would criminalize marital rape, widow inheritance [sic], in addition to providing for women’s property rights and rights to negotiate sex including seeking divorce on grounds of the man’s impotence or the size of their sexual organ. Another controversial bill is the one that seeks to enact more stringent laws for the media.

Long-term AHB watcher Warren Throckmorton reported yesterday that it was uncertain whether the bill would die with the Parliament's end and noted that "recent statements from Parliament spokespersons and from bill author David Bahati have led to uncertainty about the procedures." This came after the misreporting of the exclusion of the death penalty and other circumstances which surrounded the bill's fate at the end of Uganda's eighth Parliament.

If the bill is the one which follows the recommendations of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee, as Throckmorton has also reported, it does still contain the death penalty.

Updated to add: Throckmorton quotes a Parliament spokeswoman questioning the BBC report.

An activist from Uganda told a meeting in Washington DC on Tuesday that any new campaign in support of LGBT Ugandans must also oppose other injustices in Uganda. This was also the message from the Civil Society coalition of 31 organisations opposing the bill.

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Audio: Interview with Malawi LGBT, human rights leader

Interview with Gift Trapence, executive director of Centre for Development of People (CEDEP), Malawi

Related articles

• Malawi government threatens pro-LGBT groups, activists over foreign aid withdrawals (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Malawi, lesbianism is now illegal (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Malawi Religious Leaders Spurn HIV/AIDS Outreach to LGBT Community (boxturtlebulletin.com)

Malawi government threatens pro-LGBT groups, activists over foreign aid withdrawals

Mwakasungula (left), Trapence (right)

By Paul Canning

Threats to Malawi's foreign aid over its treatment of LGBT people are leading to attacks on civil society organisations.

This week Malawi's Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Dr. George Chaponda said that recent withdrawals of foreign aid by various countries were the fault of two NGO leaders: Human Rights Consultative Commitee (HRCC) chairperson Undule Mwakasungula and executive director of Centre for Development of People (CEDEP) Gift Trapence. Both organisations actively support LGBT rights.

“The country is suffering because of the conduct of some leaders of the civil society. Those people are not patriotic. Some donors have withdrawn their aid and everybody is suffering. More than half of salaries for Ministry of Health come from the donors,” he said.

Chaponda's comments followed the state-run Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) broadcasting a claim by the Minister of Information and Civic Education Symon Vuwa Kaunda to have "discovered" that Danish groups were funding the NGOs with US$700,000 "to propagate same sex rights in the country for a period of three years."

In an MBC editorial comment, read by the station’s news analyst Mzati Mkolokosa, MBC called on Malawians to 'fight against such activists' saying they are 'not patriotic'.

“They don’t know how much our forefathers suffered to get ourselves decolonized. We are not yet free up to date, yet someone wants to sell us back to the colonialists. Perhaps they haven’t studied global politics and need to be decolonized themselves. But let’s fight against them before they succeed in handing us over to the colonialists,” MBC said.

Chaponda said that his 'discovery' vindicated what the country’s President Bingu wa Mutharika has said: that some NGOs are "being used by external forces to destabilize the government."

“These are the people who are being used as agents from the government’s enemies,” Chaponda said.

Maravi Post columnist Raphael Tentani says that this follows Ntaba claiming that the HRCC was "operating illegally."

"All this was because Mwakasungula and Company had the audacity of reporting President Bingu wa Mutharika and his DPP-led government to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders in Geneva, Switzerland. The rights body had quite a bagful of worries they wanted the world to be aware of. These included the recent call to arms to "protect me in the streets", the auctioning of freedom with some bizarre price tag on the right to peaceful assembly and discrimination against minority groups, notably gays and lesbians."

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International pressure on anti-gay laws in Africa must not stop

The Musevenis and Obamas

Source: The Guardian

By Paul Canning

When the Ugandan government announced that the anti-homosexuality bill was on hold, those pushing it immediately blamed international pressure on President Yoweri Museveni. Pastor Martin Ssempa said that the bill was "being deliberately killed largely by the undemocratic threats of western nations".

He has a point. A campaign delivered half a million signatures to Museveni, various governments lobbied, the Germans said they'd cut aid, and now the US Congress has amended financial legislation (with bipartisan support) that would cut aid to countries deemed to be persecuting gay people. Introducing the legislation, congressman Barney Frank highlighted Uganda and noted that "the US has a fairly influential voice in the development area".

Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, has now said in a letter to Frank that his Treasury department "will continue to instruct the US executive directors at each of the MDBs [multilateral development banks] to seek to channel MDB resources away from those countries whose governments engage in a pattern of gross violations of human rights".

Pressure is also mounting from Europe. The European parliament passed a resolution in December "reminding" Africa that "the EU is responsible for more than half of development aid and remains Africa's most important trading partner" and that "in all actions conducted under the terms of various partnerships" that sexual orientation is a protected category of non-discrimination.

How financial pressure will play out remains to be seen. This month massive US funding for improving Malawi's power supply network went through despite that country criminalising lesbians.

Someone blinked regarding Malawi but there is undoubtedly more pressure on governments who repress gay people than ever before. Germany didn't blink and did cut Malawi aid.

Like Uganda, moves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to criminalise gay people have also stalled – again diplomats have raised their concerns. But now there's a backlash.

In Uganda, Ssempa presented a two-million-signature petition to parliament on 7 April demanding that the anti-gay bill be passed (and damn the consequences). In Cameroon there is a huge fuss over European Union funding for a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) advocacy group.

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Report: Blackmail, extortion the experience of LGBT in sub-Saharan Africa

Source: IGLHRC

Antiquated laws against same-sex sexual activity as well as deeply ingrained social stigma result in the all-too-frequent targeting of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Africa for blackmail and extortion, said the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) in a new report.

The report, 'Nowhere to Turn: Blackmail and Extortion of LGBT People in Sub-Saharan Africa', illustrates how LGBT Africans are made doubly vulnerable by the criminalization of homosexuality and the often-violent stigmatization they face if their sexuality is revealed. Based on research from 2007 to the present, the volume features articles and research by leading African activists and academics on the prevalence, severity and impact of these human rights violations on LGBT people in Cameroon, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.         

"The tragic reality is that blackmail and extortion are part of the daily lives of many LGBT Africans who are isolated and made vulnerable by homophobic laws and social stigma," says IGLHRC's Executive Director, Cary Alan Johnson. "The responsibility clearly lies with governments to address these crimes and the underlying social and legal vulnerability of LGBT people."

The report's authors vividly depict the isolation, humiliation and manipulation to which LGBT people are subjected by blackmailers and extortionists and describe the threats of exposure, theft, assault, and rape, that can damage and even destroy the lives of victims. Vulnerability to these crimes is faced on a regular basis and families and communities are not safe havens. For example, according to research conducted in Cameroon and featured in the report, "the bulk of blackmail and extortion attempts were committed by other members of the community - 33.9% by neighbors, 11.8% by family members, 11.5% by classmates, and 14.1% by homosexual friends. Police were often complicit in this - either by ignoring or dismissing it or, in 11.5% of cases, directly perpetrating it."

'Nowhere to Turn' explores the role the State plays in these crimes by ignoring blackmail and extortion carried out by police and other officials by failing to prosecute blackmailers, and by charging LGBT victims under sodomy laws when they do find the courage to report blackmail to the authorities.

IGLHRC urges States to take concrete steps to reduce the incidence of these crimes by decriminalizing same-sex sexual activity, educating officials and communities about blackmail laws, and ensuring that all people are able to access judicial mechanisms without prejudice.

Nowhere to Turn: Blackmail and Extortion of LGBT People in Sub-Saharan Africa

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New Dawn: How Africa is changing for the better on LGBT rights

Rwandan UN Ambassador Olivier Nduhungirehe

Source: Gay Times

By Paul Canning

Last December something rather historic happened in New York. The world voted in favour of the most basic gay right of all - the right to life.

A month earlier a group of Islamic and African countries had struck out 'sexual orientation' from a United Nations resolution on extrajudicial - non-state - killings. It had been in a long list of groups deserving protection.

The United States then announced they would try to get the vote reversed and 20 December it was. By a landslide.

Despite the vote being cast in apocalyptic terms (the delegate from the West African state of Benin said that "this vote determines the very future of humanity!" and that it would "go down in the annals of history") over a quarter of member states positively changed their votes - including a third of Africa.

Rwanda voted for gays and in an astonishing speech the delegate Olivier Nduhungirehe said it was not because of lobbying or threats but because of the lessons learned from the genocide that country had suffered.

"Whether or not the concept is defined or not, whether or not we support the claims of people with a different sexual orientation, whether or not we approve of their sexual practices – we must deal with the urgency of these matters and recognize that these people continue to be the target of murder in many of our societies, and they are more at risk than many of the other groups listed. This is unfortunately true, and recognizing this is not a call to give them special rights; it’s just recognition of a crime, that their fundamental rights, their right to life should not be refused. But to refuse to recognize this reality for legal or ideological or cultural reasons will have the consequence of continuing to hide our heads in the sand and to fail to alert states to these situations that break families."

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In Malawi, lesbianism is now illegal

Source: African Activist

Malawi President Bingu Wa Mutharika has signed a bill into law that criminalises sex between two women. Malawi's penal code already prohibited sex between two men and the law was applied in the case of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza who were sentenced to 14 years in prison with hard labour for celebrating their love in what authorities called a traditional same-sex ceremony. Malawi also rejected pressure to comply with human rights obligations by the donor community.

Press Release from International Commission of Jurists:

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) expresses grave disappointment at Malawi’s recent enactment of a law criminalizing sexual relations between women. Such a law is an affront to human dignity and seriously undermines Malawi’s human rights commitments under international law.

The ICJ urges that the Parliament undertake an immediate review with an eye to repealing all laws that currently criminalize sexual activity on the basis of the sex of the partners.

In December 2010, the Parliament passed a bill amending the Penal Code of Malawi. In late January 2011, President Bingu Wa Mutharika assented to the bill, thus completing its enactment into law. The new Section 137A, captioned “Indecent practices between females,” provides that any female person who, whether in public or private, commits “any act of gross indecency with another female” shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a prison term of five years.

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Wikileaks, Uganda, the gays and the US State Department

The Obamas + Muscevenis

Source: El Pais

By Luis Doncel

[Google translation]

"It is true that I said we would have to cut the head of all homosexuals. But finally I cut one?" I've arrested someone for being gay? No. Senegal it does and get the support of the Millennium Development Goals. I know there are homosexuals in my country. But I am content to live in secret. As are private does not matter. But if you're talking about to be married, that will never happen. We will never accept the gay."
 

These words came from the mouth of the president of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, in February last year. He spoke with U.S. Ambassador, who had come to deal with the president of this tiny West African country on the thorny issue of sexual freedom. "I want your government knows I'm not the monster they think I am," he said. It is true that Jammeh's speech is more aggressive than is customary among some African leaders. But, as shown by dozens of cables sent to Washington by diplomats on the continent, not far from an exception. Homophobia is rampant in the streets and government offices in Africa. And worse, it seems to be more.

The killing last week of David Kato, an activist for the rights of sexual minorities in Uganda, was the last episode of the battle that erupted in 2009 when a group of parliamentarians tried to pass a law condemning to death or life imprisonment for homosexual "repeat offenders". Finally, the rule did not go ahead, thanks largely to pressure from Western governments. But the lock does not mean that the situation now is idyllic: sexual deviance in Uganda is punishable with 14 years in prison. Four countries in Africa, Somalia, Sudan, Nigeria and Mauritania, including the death penalty for men who have sex with men, according to the International Association ILGA. In total, 38 African States have laws against homosexuality.
 
A dozen confidential letters sent to Washington between November 2009 and February 2010 have to detail how U.S. diplomats sought to convince President Yoweri Museveni that paralyzed the processing of the law. Even the Catholic Church stepped in to show their opposition to using the Criminal Code against homosexuals, although, he said a cable sent from the Vatican views these actions as a "mortal sin." In addition, documents obtained by Wikileaks, which the country has had access, are the U.S. fear that other governments harden their legislation soon.

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Did 'the gay issue' cost Malawi millions in aid?

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Maravi Post

By Raphael Tenthani

Perhaps it's mere coincidence; perhaps it's because the year has just ended but past headliners came back to make news just before as the year ended and as we start a brand new year.

"Gay Issue Cost Malawi K84bn," was the headline in Malawi News reporting that at a December 13-15, 2010, review meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, a panel rejected Malawi's 84bn Malawi Kwacha (US $56m) Global Fund for Malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV allocation for failing to repeal laws that criminalise homosexuality and prostitution.

The first five months of 2010 were dominated by news of the arrest, trial and protracted incarceration of Malawi's first openly gay couple who publicly declared their intention to wed. Despite the global media training its sights on Malawi, the southern African country refused to give in to the Western pressure to release the two and repeal homophobic legislation or risk economic backlash.

It took the intervention of the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who flew to Malawi to intercede on behalf of the couple, to have Pres Bingu wa Mutharika to pardon 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, 26, whom Blantyre Chief Resident Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa had sentenced to what he famously dubbed a "scary sentence" of 14 years for unnatural acts (buggery) and gross indecency.

The weekly reported that despite Malawi indicating that it would address issues of Men Having Sex With Men (MSMs) and commercial sex workers in its HIV/Aids campaign, the Global Fund was not impressed because Malawi still has anti-gay and anti-prostitution laws on its statute books, thus its decision to reject the country's proposal.

Related articles

• Malawi about to criminalise lesbian sex (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Malawi, Tiwonge Chimbalanga in danger, Canada stonewalling on asylum (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Queer Malawi: untold stories (madikazemi.blogspot.com) 
• Is Malawi risking Foreign Aid through conviction of gay couple? (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

In Malawi, gay support crucial in fight against Aids

Source: Street News Service

By Joe Opio

Baptist Chavuga wasn't among the horde of outraged Malawians that gathered outside the Blantyre courtroom to heckle Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza as the pair arrived to stand trial on charges of practicing homosexuality.

Chavuga, a 45-year old resident of Lilongwe, couldn't make it to Blantyre to vent his spleen.

But still, he admits to understanding the sentiment that fuelled those in front of the courtroom on that fateful day. "Homosexuality is unnatural and unacceptable," he rails when asked about the case that united Malawi, polarized Africa and horrified the international community. "Those two embarrassed us as a nation. I would say they got exactly what they deserved initially. It's a pity our president caved into donor pressure and released them."

For the record, Chimbalanga and Monjeza were arrested on Boxing Day in 2009, after the two participated in a traditional engagement ceremony. The twosome was sentenced to 14 years of hard labour in prison for "gross indecency" and "unnatural acts" by Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa who commented: "I will give you a scaring sentence so that the public is protected from people like you, so that we are not tempted to emulate this horrendous example."

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In Malawi, Tiwonge Chimbalanga in danger, Canada stonewalling on asylum?

By Paul Canning

This post has been updated. Please check back for further updates.

NB: apologies for earlier errors in descriptions of Tiwonge's gender. It has been confirmed that Tiwonge identifies as female.


Tiwonge Chimbalanga, one half of the couple arrested and imprisoned in Malawi on homosexuality charges, has been attacked and has been waiting three months to receive a visa so she can get asylum in Canada.

David Jones, an American volunteer with CEDEP-Malawi, a group which works with minorities including LGBTI in that country, reports for the Council for Global Equality's blog that CEDEP have been told that "quiet diplomacy" will secure the visa, however Gift Trapence, a gay CEDEP worker, told Maravi Post 1 October that "[her] passport is ready, [she] is just waiting to be issued with a visa for Canada." Jones told us that she has had a passport since September. The Maravi Post article also said that Tiwonge has secured three years material support for herself on moving to Canada - a likely requirement by Canadian authorities.

• Update, 30 December: Jones tells us that the asylum process is being facilitated by the Global Justice Institute of the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC). He says that "the people working on this have no reason to believe that there is a delay on anyone's part as this process always takes some time." 

Harassment, danger

Jones says that "Tiwonge is still confined, and living with emotional trauma and physical danger."

When Tiwonge went to Malawi's business capital Blantyre to get her passport she stayed with a relative but a crowd gathered and circled the house, Jones says, and the relative asked her to leave. In Lilongwe, Malawi's capital where Tiwonge is living, she had malaria and needed to see a doctor. A threatening crowd gathered at the public health centre and she had to leave. Jones says this happened again when Tiwonge needed to have a tooth pulled, and she had to sneak into a private clinic at night.

"Tiwonge is hiding in a house in a neighborhood of Lilongwe. The house is also used as an office. The houses there are small. The bedrooms are the size of many walk-in closets in the US. There is no privacy and the strain on everyone is becoming enormous. Recently when staff were away one night Tiwonge walked the short distance to a rough commercial area where there are shops, a traditional market, men hanging around fires looking for piecework, petrol stations, a truck stop and several bars. She was recognized and seriously beaten, and had her only valuable possession stolen, her cell phone," says Jones.

Move to South Africa?

Jones says that because of the delays by Canada Tiwonge's supporters are considering moving her to South Africa for her safety. He says that SA organizations may be able to host her and provide support. Malawians have visa-free entry into South Africa, however only for a limited time and SA is currently experiencing a violent backlash against African immigration. Nevertheless, he believes that such a move "may even strengthen her case by highlighting the clear risk to her safety in Malawi".

But Professor of asylum law and LGBT Asylum News contributor Bruce Leimsidor warns against moving Tiwonge to South Africa. He said that although she can apply for asylum "and will almost certainly get it" moving there "may very well scuttle her chances for Canada, even if she does not request asylum there."

"Canada has taken a very strong stand on the 'safe third country' principle: if you pass through a country where you could have requested asylum - and don't - you will be returned there and not given asylum in Canada. So, if her advocates are thinking of sending her to S. Africa until Canadian asylum can be resolved, the best check with the Canadian authorities first."

American immigration lawyer, lesbian activist and former South African Melanie Nathan agrees with Leimsidor about a move to South Africa, adding that Tiwonge "may not be as safe as some would like to think in South Africa which has become a fend-for-yourself society when it comes to gay, lesbian and transgender people. The South African authorities have failed its own LGBT community and the crime rate in that country is hazardous to anyone moving there."

Instead Nathan recommends to Tiwonge's supporters to "have her living in the closest Canadian Embassy."

Human rights activist Peter Tatchell -  who helped organise prison visits and financial support for Tiwonge and her then partner during their many months of imprisonment - said that he has known for many months about her plight and that she has expressed anxiety about the long delays in getting Canadian asylum.

"My contacts have visited her regularly," he said. "They say she feels isolated and vulnerable. I have communicated this to the relevant people in Malawi and to international human rights groups. They are doing there best to assist Tiwo but it is taking too long. "

"I am fearful that one day she will be badly beaten or killed. I hope someone can hasten Tiwo's move to Canada, before any harm comes to her."

Imprisoned

Chimbalanga, 21, and her now-estranged 27-year-old partner Steven Monjeza, were arrested on December 27 last year after performing a traditional public engagement ceremony (a chinkhoswe in Chichewa) at a lodge the former was working on in the outskirts of Blantyre.

The New York Times reported that:

"This public celebration drew dozens of uninvited guests. Some hooted and jeered, and at least one phoned a local newspaper, which published a front-page article about “gay lovebirds” partaking in “the first recorded public activity for homosexuals in the country.”

They received a 14 year 'hard labor' sentence but were later pardoned by Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika after extensive intentional media coverage and condemnation by governments including threats to withdraw aid funding. However in the pardon he said: "I don't want to hear anyone commenting on them. Nobody is authorised to comment on the gays. You will spoil things."

Mutharika's announcement came after he met with United Nations General Secretary Ban-Ki Moon. Mutharika dubbed Aunt Tiwo (another name by which Chimbalanga is known) as “stupid, demonic and useless” when he described her movement, body language and exaggerated facial expressions

In an interview with local TV after they were arrested Chimbalanga told the reporter that she "stood for her beliefs", saying according to a translation provided by Jimmy Kainja, who runs a Malawi affairs blog from London, that "he was within his right to chose his sexual orientation". After their release Chimbalanga remained unrepentant saying she would rather quit Malawi and live in a country where her status would be acceptable.

However following her release there has been a steady stream of threatening comments in Malawian online media as well as false reporting. Government Minister Patricia Kaliati, threatened them with rearrest. This led local supporters to immediately find them a safe house, however Steven did not take up the offer and was soon featured in local newspapers denouncing Chimbalanga and sporting a girlfriend.

HT: African Activist

Related articles  

• Malawian Tiwonge Chimbalanga headed for Canadian asylum (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

• Queer Malawi: untold stories (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Malawi about to criminalise lesbian sex (madikazemi.blogspot.com)