Joseph Kony (STUART PRICE/AFP/Getty Images)
In the span of just a few days, Invisible Children’s #Kony2012 campaign has generated an avalanche of attention on Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony.
The world should know who Kony is. But Kony is but one fugitive from justice among many, operating in a region faced with systemic human rights challenges requiring effective and transformative action.
Awareness is an important first step. But we need to stop all the Konys of the world.
Joseph Kony (STUART PRICE/AFP/Getty Images)
In the past 48 hours, there has been a flood of criticism of Invisible Children’s #Kony2012 campaign—much of it fair, some of it less so.
My first exposure to IC’s work was some time ago when—with Resolve—they launched the LRA Crisis Tracker. In stark contrast to the criticisms of implicit disempowerment of affected people by the Kony2012 campaign, this tool empowers communities through radio and digital communications to effectively form an overlapping system of neighborhood watch in LRA-affected areas. It is—in short—good work, and represents the promise of access to the benefits of science and technology, whether for underprivileged people in the US, or communities facing security threats in Uganda and elsewhere.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addresses the assembly at the United Nations in Geneva on December 6, 2011. ©J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/AFP/Getty Images
The fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights took not one but two critical steps forward this week with President Obama’s release of a Presidential Directive on LGBT rights followed closely by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s international human rights day speech at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
As we’ve pointed out, in too many countries being gay, or being suspected of being gay, can get you thrown into jail, tortured, raped or killed. From the so-called corrective rape of lesbians to proposed legislation to institute the death penalty for homosexuality, LGBT people around the world face the daily threat of violence simply for who they are.
A quick glance at Wikipedia or this ILGA report is enough to tell you that there are a LOT of countries where it’s dangerous or deadly to be (or even to be perceived as) lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT).
There are still more than 80 countries with sodomy laws, and punishment can include flogging, imprisonment, and in about a dozen jurisdictions, the death penalty. Those suspected of being LGBT are also routinely the victims of harassment, discrimination and violence. Many of those who speak up for LGBT rights – regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity – are themselves persecuted with impunity.
Here are 7 countries Amnesty International has recently had particular concerns about:
Amnesty International activists take part in Gay Pride in Paris
Join us in celebrating Pride Month this June by standing up for LGBT rights!
Pride Month is the annual commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall Riots where courageous members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community stood up to police brutality and discrimination at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. This resistance galvanized the LGBT community and gave birth to the modern LGBT rights movement.
© Getty Images
It’s been a week of incredible ups and downs for LGBT people around the world. We hardly had time to feel joy for the legalization of same-sex civil unions in Brazil, when we learned that the Ugandan parliament was getting ready to vote on a law that would have outlawed homosexuality and imposed the death penalty for some homosexual acts.
Amnesty International and many others called on the Ugandan parliament to reject the bill, and we all felt great relief today when the parliament dissolved without debating or voting on the bill. It’s entirely possible that the bill could be reintroduced when new members of parliament are sworn in next week, but at least it wasn’t passed today, as had been feared.
But the feeling of relief is mixed with sadness, because LGBT people continue to be killed because of who they are in many countries, regardless of what the laws say. On May 4th, Quetzalcoatl Leija Herrera, an outspoken advocate of LGBT rights in Mexico, was attacked and killed when he was walking home in the evening, in what appears to have been a homophobic attack. Police are investigating, but as so often happens in these kinds of cases, their inquiries are strangely focused almost exclusively on Herrera’s friends in the LGBT community.
This isn’t the first instance of police being less than sympathetic toward LGBT people that Amnesty International has documented: in 2009 we issued an Urgent Action on three transgender women in Honduras, two of whom were killed, and one of whom was beaten by police.
So while it’s great that we can celebrate progress like the legalization of same-sex unions in Brazil, it’s clear there’s a long way to go, and a lot more action needed, before the world will truly be a safe place to be LGBT.
Protest at Uganda House, New York, against the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Copyright Kaytee Riek.
In a tragic update to a posting several weeks ago regarding gay rights in Africa, a leading activist in Uganda was horrifically murdered yesterday. According to several news sources,
“David Kato, the advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda, was bludgeoned to death in Mukono, Kampala, yesterday afternoon.”
Mr. Kato was instrumental in a successful law suit brought against the Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone to force it to stop printing names, addresses and pictures of LGBT persons in Uganda. Mr. Kato was also a leading voice lobbying against a bill still pending in Parliament to punish those accused of homosexuality with death.
We mourn Mr. Kato’s tragic death. The human rights community lost a courageous defender yesterday.
Update: Send a message of solidarity to Uganda’s LGBT Rights Coalition. Let’s let them know they are not alone.
Uganda's proposed "Anti-Homosexuality Bill" received support from Christian groups © Demotix/Edward Echwalu
Last year, a couple was imprisoned for several months in Malawi following a traditional engagement ceremony based on a law criminalizing homosexuality. Similar laws exist in about 2/3 of African Union member nations. They were eventually pardoned by President Mutharika following loud international condemnation. Apparently, however, this incident served to bring to light a gap in Malawi’s laws members of Parliament decided to address.
Early last month, a bill was passed in Malawi’s parliament criminalizing homosexuality between women. Evidently there was concern the prior law could be construed to only apply to men, and since Malawi is clearly dedicated to making all things equal, decided it was necessary consenting adult women sharing their love also deserved the right to go to prison. As far as I know, the bill has yet to be signed into law by President Mutharika.
In more positive news this week, a court in Uganda decided publishing the names of LGBT people is completely uncool. While a pending law allowing for punishment by the death penalty for engaging in homosexuality lingers in limbo, an enterprising tabloid decided putting names and pictures in papers with the words “hang them” was an appropriate vigilante maneuver.
So boo to Malawi legislators and three cheers to the Ugandan high court as LGBT individuals struggle to be treated with respect, dignity and human rights in Africa.
In Uganda, a country in the dark ages of human rights, where homosexuality is outlawed by a law dating back to colonial times and the parliament on track to debate a proposed death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” in the not too distant future, the safety and lives of LGBT activists are in jeopardy.
On October 2, a tabloid called the ‘Rolling Stone’ published an incendiary article claiming that homosexuals were going to raid the schools and “recruit 100,000 innocent kids by 2012”. The article publicized the identities of 117 alleged homosexuals, 100 of which had accompanying photos. As if the absurd and completely baseless claims weren’t enough, the tabloid decided to include the caption “Hang them” to incite the people of Uganda to attack these individuals.
In the words of Frank Mugisha, Chair of the NGO Sexual Minorities Uganda:
“Two days after the paper was on the streets I was harassed in my area, with verbal insults. Almost every person who was named in the paper has been harassed, and some have been attacked.”
Frank Mugisha
According to Mugisha, the ‘Rolling Stone’ article was the most hostile attempt yet to incite panic about gay people in Uganda. He has taken the tabloid to court and won a small victory in the form of a court-issued injunction at the beginning of this month, which the tabloid vows to break in their campaign to promote violence and hatred against the LGBT community.
On November 23, the merits of the case, and the status of homosexuals as human beings with rights, will be heard by the High Court. Until then, Frank Mugisha fears for his life:
“I don’t know what could happen to me at any minute. I do not know who wants to hang me, I do not know who wants to attack me. I cannot decide on my fate. [But] I cannot go back in the closet – I gave my life to the movement, I can’t change it now.”
A police post in Kampala, Uganda(c) Amnesty International
As the world was watching every dribble, pass, and shot of the World Cup final match, a bomb exploded in Kampala, Uganda killing 76 people. Now, Uganda is making matters worse by arbitrarily arresting and detaining Al-Amin Kimanthi, the head of the Muslim Human Rights Forum (MHRF) in Kenya. Kimanthi was arrested on September 15 as he flew to Uganda to observe the trial of six other Kenyans on trial for the bombing. He was charged with terrorism and murder six days later.
Uganda and Kenya both have not followed international standards nor human rights law in their handling of Kimanthi’s case. Beginning with his arbitrary arrest and six day detention without being charged, Kimanthi’s charge sheet has no evidence linking him to the bomb attack. Furthermore, Kenya has ignored his right to habeas corpus in his incognito transfer to Uganda. Both Kenya and Uganda have failed to respect extradition procedures which require reciprocal warrants of arrests in both countries and judicial hearings.
It seems as though Kimanthi was arbitrarily arrested for carrying out his legitimate human rights work – providing legal support to the suspects charged in connection with the bomb attack.
Amnesty is calling on the Ugandan government to release Kimanthi or specify the charges against him. The perpetrators of the July, 2010 bombing in Kampala must be brought to justice, but this must not come at the expense of international human rights law and standards.