African LGBTs exploited for clout, activist says as Burkina Faso bans homosexuality

FRANCE 24 English

Junta-run Burkina Faso has passed a law banning homosexuality and instituting punishments of up to five years in jail, becoming the latest in a clutch of African nations to pass anti-gay legislation. Speaking with FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney, Robert Akoto Amoafo, Advocacy Manager at the African regional chapter of ILGA, says that African LGBT people have become the go-to group for political and religious leaders to score popularity points.  Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

Transcript

00:00This is apropos. Amnesty International is expressing concern as Burkina Faso becomes

00:09the latest African nation to criminalise same-sex relations. The rights group describing the

00:15move as an alarming setback. Unelected, lawmakers have this week unanimously adopted a draft

00:21family code making homosexual acts punishable by up to five years in prison. With details,

00:27here's James Vazina. The government says it's an effort to modernise laws, but LGBT organisations

00:35will be viewing it as another step back for people's rights on the continent. Fines and

00:42prison sentences await anybody engaging in or promoting homosexual or transgender activity

00:48after Burkina Faso's junta passed legislation outlawing LGBT practices. A law that was passed

00:55unanimously on Monday by Burkina Faso's transitional parliament. A person who engages in homosexual

01:02practices will appear before a judge and, in the event of a repeat offence, be deported

01:07if you are not a Burkinabe national. The move comes less than a year after the

01:12country's neighbouring ally, Mali, which is also ruled by a military junta, adopted a law

01:18criminalising homosexuality. Ghana and Uganda have also recently toughened their laws.

01:25And while same-sex relationships are outlawed in around a third of the world's countries,

01:30a large number of African nations remain particularly hostile.

01:36This map charts an equality index, measuring the current laws and public attitudes towards

01:41LGBT people. The higher the number, the more friendly the country is deemed to be.

01:48In some countries, anti-LGBT laws date from the colonial era, while in others, a religious

01:54resurgence has seen a growth in anti-gay opinions and laws.

01:59Over half of Africa's 54 countries criminalise same-sex activity and the relaxing of laws in

02:05some has been met with demonstrations, such as here in Namibia and in Kenya.

02:15Cape Verde and South Africa are by large deemed the friendliest. South Africans became the

02:21first on the continent to be allowed to marry people of the same sex in 2006.

02:26To discuss, we're joined now from Ghana by human rights advocate Robert Akoto Amofo from the

02:35International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. Thanks so much for being

02:41with us on the programme. As we say, Kina Faso becoming the latest African nation to criminalise

02:47same-sex relations. Why, in your view, is this happening now?

02:51Thank you very much for this opportunity. And this is sad news to come by, but it's not surprising.

03:01As you may be aware, recently we have received a lot of interest by anti-rights groups in Africa

03:08increasing their activities and encouraging our state laws and houses to pass such laws.

03:16Of course, as you may be aware from 2013, they have increased their activities, starting from Uganda,

03:22Ghana, Kenya, even in Francophone countries where we see a number of Francophone countries that did not

03:30have laws that criminalise LGBT people. So this is not surprising, but it is worrying that this trend

03:37keeps increasing and making LGBT people look like the bats of the joke, which means that LGBT people

03:44are always criminalised and used as escape goods for a number of these laws that are passed,

03:51especially around family.

03:53And talk to us a little bit then about the kind of effects that these laws are having on people.

03:58Rights groups reporting that the LGBT community is dealing with arbitrary arrests in certain countries

04:03and detention and just general discrimination.

04:09Exactly. And most of the times when we talk about these laws, one of the key things is the violence

04:14that happens to LGBT people because of the existence of this law.

04:18Violence by non-state actors, you know, when people take the law into their own hands,

04:24because they know there's an existing law that criminalise LGBT people,

04:28then they're able to harm them further and go without being punished. There are a number of cases

04:33where LGBT people have been killed, have been beaten in various countries, and they've gone

04:38scot-free because there are laws that are against LGBT people. Also discrimination in health services.

04:46A lot of these laws only do not criminalise LGBT people, but people who try in any way to support LGBT people.

04:54So for instance, in this law, it talks about promoting, which means that anyone who does anything,

05:01and because the meaning is so vague, it could help and it could make health workers reduce

05:08their services to LGBT people if they are found to be LGBT or suspected to be LGBT. In schools,

05:14LGBT people who are already known or suspected to be LGBT may be expelled or may be discriminated

05:20against or may feel uncomfortable and may have to leave school. Economic-wise, in their jobs,

05:26they are going to be thrown out of school, especially effeminate or people who exhibit

05:32tendencies of when people may look at it as LGBT or being gay or being lesbian. So these are the main

05:40impacts that it has on LGBT people, having impacts on their lives, their existence, their identity

05:46as human beings. Robert, do these laws reflect, do you think, societal shifts and a hardening

05:53of attitudes or are political leaders kind of using this issue to score political points?

06:00Yes. Political people are using this to score political points as exactly as you mentioned. In many

06:06countries, we observe that whenever it is time for elections, many of these political parties use this

06:12as a scorecard to motivate voters to get votes. In Ghana, it's happened in Kenya and in many other

06:20countries. And for many, many reasons, LGBT people are used as, like I mentioned, the part of the joke,

06:26which means that either they are used as a scorecard to get into severe spaces or they are used as a

06:33means to show morality. And this has been a very serious issue against LGBT people. And it's not only

06:40religious and political leaders that use this, but also religious leaders and various leaders who want

06:46to have their way in so many areas. So LGBT people in Africa now have become like the place to go to

06:53when you want to get fame or you want to get popular or you want to show that you are being a savior of the

07:00masses. And this has been the effect of these things on LGBT people in Africa.

07:06And those people as well in African countries, particularly like Uganda, we hear reports that

07:12they're being affected by Donald Trump's move to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International

07:18Development. How has that been impacting LGBT people, not just in Uganda, but across Africa?

07:27As you may be aware, a lot of the funding that comes to Africa to support health care

07:32and comes from some of these fundings that have been cut by the Trump administration and USAID used to fund.

07:40And interestingly, it's not only LGBT people, but a broader sense of a number of health issues that have been

07:46stopped, but effectively on LGBT people, because a number of the medications, the access to safe spaces and the

07:55work that LGBT organizations used to do on the continent were funded by some of these funding that used to come to

08:01support the work that we do, advocacy to support even support poor LGBT people who are being harassed.

08:08And then many times we say that these laws, when they are passed, do not affect greatly people who are

08:15protected because of their ability to afford a number of things. The poor LGBT people who live in spaces where

08:22they do not have agency are the people who suffer the most because they have a number of people on their

08:28neck. I always give an example of people who live in a communal area who don't have their privacy.

08:34They are the people who, if you look at the statistics on violence, they are the people affected. So this law is not

08:41only the fact that it's affecting LGBT people, but poor LGBT people who cannot speak for themselves, who cannot do

08:47anything for themselves because of the instance of poverty. And this cutting of funding affects a number

08:54of things that the LGBT community could have access to to protect themselves from laws and violence as

09:01it exists against the community. Okay, Robert, we'll have to leave it there for now. We're out of time on

09:07that. But thanks so much for being with us on the programme. That is human rights advocate, Robert Amofu,

09:12for joining us live there from Ghana.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended