Country Reports

Burundian LGBT people were devastated in November 2008, when the National Assembly voted in favor of adding an article to the proposed new Criminal Code that would penalize same-sex relations between consenting adults. Human Rights Watch (2009).

Burundian lawyers and politicians, along with international experts, had spent two years revising the old criminal code, which dated to 1981, but the National Assembly’s human rights commission added the anti-homosexuality provision at the last minute. Human Rights Watch teamed up with a photographer to create portraits of ten of these young people, many of whom feel that their very identities have been rendered criminal by Burundi’s new law. HRW hope that others will draw lessons from these narratives and will work to restore the rights of LGBT people.

Report from the LGBT Rights Project by the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (2010).

Homosexuality is not illegal in Cambodia and there are no anti-gay religious traditions. However, LGBT persons in Cambodia still face discrimination and/or abuse from family members, employers, and police.

As a result of differences in language and culture, the concept of ‘homosexuality’ as understood in the West is not necessarily directly transferable and understandable in the Cambodian context. Rather, the Cambodian understanding of sexuality is derived from concepts of gender, character and personality. The focus on these character traits and outwardly visible characteristics instead of sexual orientation means that many Cambodians who are homosexual do not identify themselves as such. Among Buddhists, there is a general disposition to tolerate homosexuality. Because Cambodian culture is predominantly Buddhist, homosexuality, whilst seen as an oddity, does not attract the kind of aggressive reaction as can be seen in Christian or Muslim cultures. King Father Norodom Sihanouk has expressed public support for LGBT people but the views of other politicians have been mixed. The challenges faced by LGBT people in Cambodia have not been acknowledged by the Royal Government of Cambodia ("RGC") and do not seem to feature on the RGC agenda at all.

Political analysis and commentary from Africa (2010).

Over the past couple of years, there has not been a shortage of examples of human rights violations of LGBTI persons throughout the continent. The violations have been perpetrated by both state and non-state actors. The violations vary from the denial of basic rights to, in some extreme cases, physical violence against LGBTI people and sometimes even death. Some states have taken efforts to strengthen criminal laws by increasing penalties or broadening the list of offences that LGBTI people can be charged under.

Current and former heads of state continue to make statements condemning same sex relations. Various religious formations have also taken the opportunity to oppose same sex relationships. There are currently 38 countries on the continent that actively criminalise same sex intimacy and, while not expressly criminalised in other countries, other laws, like vagrancy or public nuisance laws, can be used to prosecute and persecute LGBTI individuals and groups.

In 6 articles, this publication covers different aspects of LGBTI activism in Africa, including experiences from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The message is that despite the myriad of challenges and hostile environment there is an ongoing engagement and growing movement towards equality for LGBTI people throughout the continent.

2015, 38 pages

This report from PEN America and PEN Nigeria, uses potent and poignant individual testimonies by LGBTI Nigerians to demonstrate how the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act of 2014 has distorted Nigeria’s cultural and political landscape by silencing the country’s LGBTI community through state-sanctioned intimidation and marginalization. Drawing on interviews with local LGBTI authors, artists, activists, and their allies, the report details the cascading effects of a law that, while purporting to target same sex marriage, has infringed upon rights to free speech, access to health care, housing, and employment, interfered with civil and political rights, and led to wholesale impunity for violence against LGBTI people. The report documents the cases of writers unable to publish their books, poems, and stories, organizations forbidden from meeting, social media communities chilled by government infiltration, and rising incidents of blackmail and extortion directed at LGBTI individuals. The report showcases Nigeria’s at-risk literary and artistic traditions with works by prominent writers and artists from Nigeria’s LGBTI community and diaspora, including Unoma Azuah, Jude Dibia, and Adejoke Tugbiyele.

2013, 30 pages

A detailed discussion of the term corrective rape through an analysis of the narrative of one lesbian's experienced of being raped.