Cameroon’s LGBT Population Faces Violence, Intimidation and Imprisonment

A report released Thursday by a coalition of four human rights groups highlights that Cameroon LGBT citizens are victims of institutionalized homophobia, intimidation and violence at the hands of their communities, politicians and police.

Human rights groups, including the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, have taken this opportunity to again urge Cameroon’s government to decriminalize consensual same-sex relations and take immediate action to curb violence against Cameroon’s LGBT population.

From the joint press release:

The government should take urgent action to decriminalize such consensual conduct and to ensure the full human rights of all Cameroonians, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, said Alternatives-Cameroun, l’Association pour la défense des droits des homosexuels, Human Rights Watch, and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.

The 62-page report, “Criminalizing Identities: Rights Abuses in Cameroon Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity,” details how the government uses article 347 bis of the Penal Code to deny basic rights to people perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). The report describes arrests, beatings by the police, abuses in prison, and a homophobic atmosphere that encourages shunning and abuse in the community. The consequence is that people are not punished for a specific outlawed practice, but for a homosexual identity, the groups said.

“The poor and the young, who often have no way to get legal assistance, suffer the most from Cameroon’s abusive atmosphere,” said Steave Nemande, president of Alternatives-Cameroun. “Even after they get out of jail, families and friends often reject them. They are denied education, jobs, even a place to live. Their lives are ruined.”

The report, based on 45 interviews with victims, documents abuse by police, including beatings on the victims’ bodies and even the soles of their feet. Prison guards ignore abuses by other prisoners, including beatings, rapes, and urinating and defecating on the victims’ possessions.

Those arrested under article 347 bis are routinely held without charge in excess of the minimum time allowed by Cameroonian law, the groups found. Judges may sentence them to prison time without credible evidence that they engaged in a homosexual act. Even when judges have dismissed charges, prosecutors have sometimes charged the accused again before they could be freed.

Women Suffer Under Gender Binary
It is not just LGBT citizens that are suffering under this climate of violence. The report suggests that women who do not fit typical gender stereotypes or appear “feminine enough” are branded deviants and can be ostracized by family members and their communities, while women who are even just suspected of having had a same-sex relationship are particularly vulnerable to sexual assaults and rape. If those women have families already, they may find their children removed from their care with little to no legal recourse because of potential unequal treatment from the legal system.

Media Creates Culture of Persecution
Creating buzz words such as “homocraty” to vilify LGBTs, the report details how Cameroon’s newspapers have launched anti-gay campaigns, outing people the media claims are LGBT while pedaling stories about how rich and power-hungry homosexuals are out to convert the innocent and seize control of the nation.

Human Rights Abuses Put Health at Risk
The report also warns that institutionalized homophobia may be contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS in the region:

The criminalization of same-sex activities has serious health consequences, the groups said. Cameroon does not have HIV/AIDS programs designed to meet the special needs of LGBT people, despite evidence that this population is vulnerable to the virus. The government does not track HIV prevalence and conducts no surveys of behavior in these communities related to transmission of the virus. Furthermore, the government prohibits the distribution of condoms in prisons, although HIV prevalence in prisons is high, male prisoners engage in homosexual sex, and rape is common. “People living in secrecy are vulnerable to blackmail and abuse,” said Boris Dittrich, advocacy director of the LBGT Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Arrests may be relatively rare, but the physical violence and mental cruelty against this population are devastating.”

Over the past five years, international bodies like the UN Human Rights Council have repeatedly urged the Cameroon government to take action to end the persecution of LGBT citizens and put in place universal HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and public health programs for all its citizens, however the government has refused to take up these recommendations, continuing a trend of unwillingness to deal with the human rights abuses inflicted on LGBT or perceived LGBT citizens within its borders.

“The criminalization of same-sex conduct has consequences beyond the obvious unacceptable arrests,” said Monica Mbaru, African coordinator of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. “It drives inequality within the justice system itself and promotes violence within people’s homes, families, and communities. The government of Cameroon needs to accept responsibility to ensure all Cameroonians live free of discrimination, whatever their orientation or identity.”

According to the Advocate, Cameroon’s communications minister, Issa Tchiroma, appeared Wednesday on BBC Network Africa and commented that while conviction for homosexuality in the country is punishable by up to three years in prison, “What I can emphasize is the fact that no homosexual is persecuted in Cameroon.”

You can read the full report “Criminalizing Identities” here.

Photo used under the Creative Commons Attribution License, with thanks to brianchildv.

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Sandy M.

4:29AM PST on Feb 21, 2011

When will humans learn and accept that we are def. not all the same (which would be very boring!) & in order to live a full & happy life we should accept one & all with all our/their differences and live & let live it would make for a much happier planet!;)

send a green star

Barbara E.

3:23PM PST on Nov 9, 2010

Noted

Marianna B M.

7:27AM PST on Nov 9, 2010

NOTED

Tina S.

7:11PM PST on Nov 8, 2010

We need to protect every single person on the planet. We are all ONE. We are all connected. We have never been separate. We are ONE.

3:23PM PST on Nov 8, 2010

I believe that all human beings should be treated with loving kindness and respect. We need to recognise the divinity inside each and every one of us realising that we are all precious and special! Yes, even those with whom we don't agree or don't happen to like for some reason or even those with whom we are mad. We need to start returning hatred with kindness and love, something that is very hard to do, I know from personal experience. However, if we humans wish to evolve, than this is the only course to follow, I believe.

BMutiny T.

12:41PM PST on Nov 8, 2010

1] Homosexual behavior was NOT "imported" into Africa by Colonialists. Since it is perfectly "natural" to the human species, there is NO WAY it could NOT have existed in Africa, as long as there were human beings there! {It certainly exists among our cousin-primates!}
2] The first laws against homosexual behavior came with the European colonialists and missionaries, in many traditional cultures thruout the globe. This was just a part of MANY sexually-repressive laws they instituted.
3] Many or most "traditional cultures" were FAR MORE SEX-POSITIVE at all levels, than the culture of 19th-century Victorian morality the missionaries came from.

You've heard of the "MISSIONARY POSITION"? Sex ONLY between married husband and wife, ONLY with man on top {that is "natural", huh?}, and ONLY for procreational purposes?
NEVER sex just-for-fun, oh no!
Most cultures, traditional ones, recognized other forms of sex besides the well-ridiculed "Missionary Position"!

The reason, I believe, that homosexuality is hated by religious fundamentalisms, is because it brings BACK the original idea expressed gleefully by our primate ancestors, of sex-purely-for-fun, for-expressing-affection, and for-social-bonding! SHOWING UP the "Missionary Position" for the UNNATURAL nonsense it is!
4] Finally, this modern PUSH to make the lives of homosexuals a LIVING HELL, definitely DOES come from Missionaries, both Catholic and Protestant, SENT to those countries for that purpose! IT'S DOCUMENTED.

12:12PM PST on Nov 8, 2010

It is totally FALSE to believe, or to assume, that "all" traditional cultures "naturally" hate homosexuality, as it is "unnatural".
Homosexual behavior and preference for same-sex sex, is totally "natural" to both animals and humans; such definitely homosexual behavior {including even pairing for life!} has been observed by scientists in HUNDREDS of species. The material is easily available if you look it up.
Therefore, some human cultures recognized this "naturalness" of homosexual behavior and feelings, and some didn't! Some do and some don't. There definitely WERE and ARE traditional cultures that treat homosexuality in a different way than missionary Christianity tried to teach them; not ONLY the Native American ones!
As I say, I don't want to go out on a limb about traditional cultures I don't know that many facts about. I just want to say that, 1], Africa contained many DIFFERENT cultures, and I can safely assume there was a VARIETY of responses to homosexuality among them, judging by all that is known about traditional cultures of the rest of the world; 2], in North Africa, at least, for as long as there have been written records, there has been {either approved or ignored} homosexual behavior noted by foreign observers. I don't know much about sub-Saharan Africa.
Islam has NOT always been against homosexual behavior in all countries where it is prominent; even tho, like some forms of Christianity, it may be NOW.

11:57AM PST on Nov 8, 2010

I must admit I don't know a great deal about African traditional societies. Also, I believe that missionaries and even anthropologists SUPPRESSED reports of what they found in traditional societies; or didn't understand its meaning in the first place.
I DO know, that in many traditional Native American societies, there were individuals recognized as having "two spirits", i.e., both a Male spirit and a Female spirit; they often were honored as healers, leaders and shamans; they often dressed as the opposite sex from the one they were born to, lived as the opposite sex, and took spouses and partners from their SAME sex.
This really freaked out early French explorers; who, interestingly, and incorrectly, called these individuals "berdache", which originally meant "prostitute".
Africa is a HUGE Continent, not a country {as Sarah Palin seems to think!} and by no means a unified culture. There are probably existing MANY attitudes towards homosexuality in different cultures; including, "who the heck takes notice of such an insignificant thing?" Traditional African cultures were not as unfriendly to sexual behavior of all kinds as the Christian cultures that tried to replace them.

Susan C.

11:33AM PST on Nov 8, 2010

Africa has traditional societies of which most would regard homosexuality as an aberration. It is not just the Christian church that would be unfavorable, contrary to several opinions expressed here. In fact, Modern Christianity has a very compassionate stance toward any perceived 'sin' problem. Violence of any kind is unacceptable....but the unwillingness to regard homosexuality as "normal" is reasonable.

Brian M.

9:35PM PST on Nov 7, 2010

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