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Tag: Anti-gay law

  • Anti-gay law: UN mounts pressure on Nigeria

    Anti-gay law: UN mounts pressure on Nigeria

    The United Nations has joined in the pressure against Nigeria to drop the anti-gay law.

    Speaking yesterday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Navi Pillay, described the law as a “human rights violation.”

    Ms Pillay told the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aminu Wali: “It is a violation of the human rights enshrined in the international covenant of civil and political rights. It contravenes Africa’s charter and the Nigerian constitution.”

    Ms Pillay said the UN was concerned with the negative consequences in Nigeria, stressing that it might deter the affected persons from taking up HIV education, treatment and care facilities and hinder the ability of government and civil society.

    She urged the government to have, instead, a moratorium on prosecution, saying: “I am seeking your good office to see some kind of moratorium on prosecution at this moment. We can do much more work, to have all Nigerians respect the human rights of people, to respect diversity, to promote values of tolerance, acceptance … with targeted training for law enforcement and other things.”

    The UN high commissioner said although Nigeria made landmarks on human rights protection, it lagged behind in some human rights reports.

    “Nigeria is behind in many of its reports and I am here to see how best we can support you in catching up with those reports.”

    Speaking on the landmark resolution adopted by the UN Council on Human Rights in March last year, she said: “It recognises that the use and abuse of national law to impair and criminalise the work of human rights defenders is a contravention of the international law and it must end.”

    Wali told the UN human rights chief that same sex marriage was alien to Nigerians and the majority have rejected the idea.

  • Mugabe backs Uganda’s anti-gay law

    Mugabe backs Uganda’s anti-gay law

    Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has wadded into the dispute between Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and the West after the East African leader signed anti-homosexuality laws.

    Mugabe spoke on the matter while addressing guests at his daughter Bona’s wedding at the weekend

    He said the threats by the U.S. to cut aid to Uganda, following the signing of the anti-gay bill on the basis that it violated human rights showed that the U.S. had no honour.

    “The human right you have as a man is to marry another woman, not to get another man to marry,’’ Monday’s Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe saying.

    The bill which originally carried a death penalty was first introduced in 2009 but was shelved when the West threatened to withdraw aid to Uganda.

    However, Uganda’s parliament passed it in December, only replacing the death penalty with a proposal of life in prison for “aggravated homosexuality’’, which includes acts in which one person is infected with HIV, “serial offenders’’ and sex with minors.

    Museveni has told the West that they can keep their aid and should not impose moral values on his country.

    The World Bank has since shelved a 90 million dollars loan to Uganda as it considers whether the new law will not adversely affect the development objectives of the loan.

    Many African leaders are opposed to homosexuality and in Zimbabwe; gay rights became a hot issue during the crafting of a new constitution which came into effect in 2013.

    Mugabe’s party Zanu-PF led the crusade against homosexuality and ensured that a clause outlawing same sex marriages was included in the new law.

  • UN condemms anti-homosexuality law in Uganda

    UN condemms anti-homosexuality law in Uganda

    UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms Navi Pillay, have kicked against the anti-homosexuality bill, signed into law in Uganda on Monday.

    A UN statement issued on Tuesday in New York stated that the law criminalises and imposes life imprisonment on same-sex marriage, homosexuality and aggravated homosexuality.

    Ban said the law violates basic human rights and endangers Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people in the country.

    He said he was seriously concerned about the negative impact of the new law and shares the UN High Commissioner’s view which states that the law violates human rights.

    The UN scribe added that the law would institutionalise discrimination, restrict the vital work of human rights activists and could trigger violence.

    He insisted that it would also hamper potentially life-saving efforts to stop the spread of HIV.

    The UN chief appealed for complete and universal decriminalisation of homosexuality, which is now a criminal offence in some 76 countries.

    Ban stressed that human rights must always trump cultural attitudes and societal strictures.

    On her part, Pillay said disapproval of homosexuality by some could never justify violating the fundamental human rights of others.

    She said the law institutionalised discrimination and was likely to encourage harassment and violence against individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation.

    She added that it was formulated so broadly that it might lead to abuse of power and accusations against anyone, not just LGBT people.

    She said Uganda was obliged, both by its own constitution and by international law, to respect the rights of all individuals and to protect them from discrimination and violence.

    Pillay said the law violates a host of fundamental human rights, including the right to freedom from discrimination, to privacy, freedom of association, peaceful assembly, opinion and expression and equality before the law.

    The high commissioner expressed concern that the law might also threaten the critically important work of human rights defenders in the country and urged the Ugandan government to take immediate steps to ensure that LGBT people were not prosecuted for their advocacy. (PANA/NAN)

  • Anti- gay law, U.S. and the end of man

    The threat from the United States of America (USA) was troublingly apocalyptic. It sets one wondering if there was not more to this gay matter than Uncle Sam wants us to believe. Since President Goodluck Jonathan accented to the law against homosexuality last year, the US and most of the Western world have been crying foul, insisting on its repeal. But last week, the US government took the ‘war’ one step further when it threatened not to give up until the anti-gay law is repealed.

    In a web chat with African journalists, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Linda Thomas Greenfield, was emphatic and unequivocal; she was quoted to have said: “US is opposed to the legislation targeted against the gay people and will continue to press forward to see that it is changed so that those group of people will have freedom to exercise their rights.”

    The question now is, what would the Nigerian government and people do to convince the US and her fellow gay champions that culturally and traditionally, homosexuality is a taboo in Nigeria and most of Africa? What language do we have to deploy to convince the US that same-sex cohabitation is abhorred by all the dominant religions here? How can we get the Western world to assimilate the fact that man sleeping with man or woman fondling with another is not considered an ‘orientation’ but a malady, an abomination that even animals are not allowed to engage in?

    The US and her ilk will have to see the issue from the point of view of the majority of the populace who are opposed to it not because they hate their very few gay brothers and sisters but because the perverse behavior and orientation is anathema, abhorrent to the majority and out right nihilistic to the human race. What the US must do, since she has chosen to cry more than the bereaved, is to support different therapies and‘re-orientation’ programmes for the ‘afflicted’. Again, since the act of homosexuality in Africa still instinctively elicits antagonism and even mob violence against gay people, the US may support media campaigns that would crave love and understanding for same-sex people. Instead of seeking a repeal of the law, the US may canvass for a milder penalty as the legislation has the reverse salutary effect of protecting gays from mob lynching. Easier still, the US could grant our few gay brothers and sisters citizenship so they can all migrate to America and live there happily ever after.

    Otherwise, it smacks of insulting bigotry for the US to insist that her view on this matter is the only right and correct view. We agree that human right for one and all is just and equitable but when human right in America is a taboo in Africa, there is need to seek the middle ground. Besides, why has the US closed her eyes to the proliferation of small arms and ammunition in Africa which are currently deployed in wreaking mayhem in many countries of the continent? Most of these weapons are manufactured in America and Europe. Why has the US been less concerned about the ruinous effect of official corruption in Africa? Billions of dollars in stolen funds are hidden in American and European banks. Corruption has more hideous effect on human rights and dignity of the African than any anti-gay law.

    Finally, America is clearly a society in decline having reached its tipping point; where would the West be in 100 years’ time as more men go to bed with men and women monkey around with themselves? Or is America intent on taking the entire humanity down with her?

  • Adeboye lauds Jonathan on anti- gay law

    The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has thrown his weight behind the enactment of the law punishing individuals or groups associated with gay.

    He spoke at a special prayer and thanksgiving service for First-borns organised by the church last Sunday at the National Headquarters in Lagos.

    The programme tagged: Born to excel, attracted thousands from across the country and featured prayers, bible teaching, song renditions, and prophetic ministrations.

     According to him, the commission of God for mankind is to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

    Adeboye said homosexuality is at variance with God’s command and an anathema to the society which should be ignored and rejected by every heaven-bound citizen.

    Adeboye who spoke  through his special Assistant on Personnel and Administration, Pastor Johnson Odesola, said: “I think for everyone who wants to know about the mind of the creator will need to go through the manual of God’s word which stands firmly against gays.”

    He cited Romans chapter 2 which states very clearly that homosexuality is sin and outright disobedience to God‘s plan for man.

    More so, he asserted that our culture in Africa stands against the practice of homosexuality, urging Nigerians not to be taken away by the western culture.

    He cautioned individuals and groups opposed to the law, stating that it is sad that many western countries have gone far away from God and may end up even legalising suicide and other ungodly acts.

    Adeboye, who declared a 100-day prayer and fasting programme in the church, said that Nigeria should continue to pray and lift challenges of the nation to God who alone can make all things well.

    God, he claimed, told him that there will be total transformation in the nation this year.

  • Nigeria’s anti-gay law demands a response from the West

    Nigeria’s anti-gay law demands a response from the West

    NIGERIAN PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan is expected to seek reelection next year despite opposition from northern Nigeria’s majority Muslim states. His attempt to win them over has now taken a toxic turn: sanction of an extraordinarily repressive new law against homosexuality. Gay sex has been banned in Nigeria since British colonial times. It is prohibited in 38 of Africa’s 54 countries. But the new Ni-ger-ian law, which Mr. Jonathan signed Jan. 7, goes further. It mandates a 14-year prison sentence for anyone entering a same-sex union and a 10-year term for “a person or group of persons who supports the registration, operation and sustenance of gay clubs, societies, organizations, processions or meetings.” Public displays of affection by gay men and lesbians are also criminalized. The law has triggered a wave of anti-gay violence in parts of Nigeria. According to the Associated Press, police in the northern state of Bauchi arrested 38 men beginning in late December after the law obtained final approval in Congress. Several men were allegedly tortured into naming gays they knew. The New York Times described Sunday a man who was publicly whipped for gay sex and said a mob tried to attack other gays who were brought into court. One of the Islamic sharia courts operating in northern Nigeria administered the whipping. Both they and the new law appear to violate Nigeria’s constitution, which, as Secretary of State John F. Kerry has pointed out, guarantees freedom of assembly. Nigeria is also in contravention of international treaties it has ratified : As United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay put it, “Rarely have I seen a piece of legislation that in so few paragraphs directly violates so many basic, universal human rights.” Sadly, gay men and lesbians are easy targets for demagogues in Africa, where large majorities still hold the bigoted attitudes until recently prevalent in the West. Pressure from the international community is needed as a countervailing force. How that can work was evident recently in Uganda, a country dependent on Western aid. President Yoweri Museveni vetoed a law threatening gays with life imprisonment even as he described them as the product of “random breeding” when “nature goes wrong.” Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa and a major oil producer, is harder to influence. But Britain still delivers hundreds of millions of dollars in development aid, while the United States buys 70 percent of Nigeria’s oil. Both should be aggressively using their leverage to protect the vulnerable gay community. As a starting point, they should let Mr. Jonathan know he and his government will be unwelcome in Washington and London until the law is repealed.

    – Washinton Post

  • Lawyer hails Fed Govt over anti-gay law

    Lagos lawyer, Kofi-Atiemo Gyan, has hailed the National Assembly and the Federal Government for passing and signing into law the law prohibiting same-sex marriage.

    The lawyer noted that the law would aid the fight against HIV/AIDS and sexual pervasion.

    Gyan, who is also a metaphysician, homosexualism is a mental disease and any Nigerian found practising it should be sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment.

    In a statement yesterday, the lawyer said Nigeria had set the pace for other Africans to ban homosexual practices on the continent.

    He stressed that same-sex practices were alien to the continent because they were imported from other lands.

    Gyan urged religious groups to prohibit gay practices by excommunicating homosexual members and handing them over to the government for psychiatric treatment.

    “Homosexuals should not be allowed to mingle with normal members of the society.

    “Human being walk straight forward. But if you see somebody walking backward, it means something is wrong with such a person.

  • UN condemns Nigeria’s anti- gay law

    The United Nations human rights chief has condemned Nigerian government for passing a new bill that introduces long jail terms for gay marriage, public displays of same-sex relationships, and being a member of a gay group.

    The bill includes a 14-year prison term for anyone who enters into a same sex union, and a 10-year prison term for whoever administers, witnesses, or aids’ a same sex marriage.

    “Rarely have I seen a piece of legislation that in so few paragraphs directly violates so many basic, universal human rights,” said the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.

    “Rights to privacy and non-discrimination, rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, rights to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention: this law undermines all of them.

    “Even before this Act was signed into law, consensual same sex relationships were already criminalized in Nigeria – violating rights to privacy and to freedom from discrimination, both of which are protected by the Nigerian Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Nigeria has ratified,” Ms. Pillay stated.

    Nigeria’s Senate approved the prohibition of Same Sex Marriage Bill in December, and President Goodluck Jonathan signed the Act into law earlier this week.