Report Publication: Defenders of the Rights of LGBTI persons face homophobia and violence
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (FIDH-OMCT)
Human Rights Defenders Network in Central Africa (REDHAC)
Maison des droits de l’Homme au Cameroun (MDHC)
AMSHeR - African Men for Sexual Health and Rights
Douala, Geneva,Johannesburg, Paris, 25 February 2015 – In a report presented today in Douala, ourorganisations deplore that threats and physical assaults against lesbian, gay,bisexual, transgender and intersexual (LGBTI) human rights defenders inCameroon have reached alarming proportions over the last few years. Testimonyand information compiled during a fact-finding mission in 2014 indicate that increasingnumbers of extremely serious violations are being committed, in some casesleading to murder, and that nothing is being done to prosecute theperpetrators. Our organisations feel that this impunity is especiallycontemptible since, at the same time, the authorities are arresting andconvicting many people for homosexual acts. Since 2011, at least 28 people haveapparently been convicted in Cameroon because of their sexual orientation,whether true or presumed.
“In Cameroon, LGBTI rightsdefenders are victims of the complacency of people who should be guaranteeingrespect for the defenders’ rights and security”, our organisations declared. “Justice, which is supposed to respect theprinciple of equality for all before the law, is actually supporting therepression of LGBTI persons and their defenders. This can and must change. Therule of law should not tolerate people being threatened or murdered withimpunity simply because of whom they love or who they are”.
Since 1972,homosexual acts have been indictable offences in Cameroon. Article 347 bis ofthe Cameroonian Penal Code provides for prison terms of six-months tofive-years for any person found guiltyof having had “sexual relationswith a person of the same sex”. This unfortunate legal context – withthe administrative, law enforcement and judicial authorities showingindifference or even encouragement – has led to the increase in thenumber of attacks against the defenders of LGBTI persons’ rights over the lastfew years.
Associations and NGOscannot register under a name that explicitly refers to the rights of LGBTIpersons. In 2013, the offices of Alternatives-Cameroun were set on fire, andthe offices of AIDS ACODEV, REDHAC and CAMEF were burglarised and ransacked.Defenders of LGBTI persons' rights and particularly the rare lawyers who defendthem, along with members of their family, are frequently subjected to insultsand death threats, either directly or anonymously, by telephone or by textmessage. The President of REDHAC and one of the lawyers representing LGBTIpersons had to evacuate some members of their families because of the seriousattacks and threats they were receiving.
At the same time,nothing has been done to address the many complaints filed by the LGBTI rightsdefenders to denounce violations of their rights, and the investigation intothe assassination of Eric Ohena Lembembe, Executive Director of the CameroonianFoundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS) and journalist committed to defending the rightsof LGBTI persons, remains at a standstill. He was found murdered in his home on15 July 2013.
According to ourorganisations, “the bungled investigation and the irregularities in the legalproceedings in the Eric Ohena Lembembe murder case are indicative of the impunity that isguaranteed to the perpetrators of violence against LGBTI persons and thedefenders of LGBTI rights”. “The Cameroonian judiciary must undertake a trulyindependent, impartial, transparent investigation to identify the personsresponsible for this crime and bring them to court,” they added.
Our organisationswish to point out that the United Nations Human Rights Committee hasrecommended that the Cameroonian authorities take immediate steps todecriminalise homosexual relations between consenting adults in order to bringits legislation in line with the International Covenant on Civil and PoliticalRights. In its concluding observations following its examination of CameroonState Report in 2013, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights(ACHPR) criticised the Government of Cameroon for judicial harassment, attemptson the lives of human rights defenders and other violations of their humanrights, especially those working on the issue of sexual orientation.
Our organisationsdeplore the fact that: “Homophobia, which is legitimated by thecriminalisation of homosexual acts, and the inflammatory statements made byrepresentatives of some political and religious authorities and certain media,puts the defenders of LGBTI rights in a position of psychological and physicalinsecurity.”
Our organisationswish to reiterate their appeal to the Cameroonian authorities to decriminalisesexual orientation and to embark on a genuine battle against all forms ofdiscrimination by adopting administrative, political and legal measures thatcan guarantee respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms for allindividuals, regardless of sexual orientation or gender, and thus comply withinternational standards.
Context
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, (a jointFIDH-OMCT programme), together with MDHC, REDHAC andAMSHeR, conducted an internationalfact-finding mission in Cameroon in January 2014 on the situation of LGBTIrights defenders. The mission was composed of Assane Dioma Ndiaye (Senegal), attorney-at-law at theDakar Bar and President of the Senegalese League for Human Rights (LSDH), BerryDidier Nibogora (Burundi), lawyer in charge of the AMSHeR programme Law,Politics, Advocacy and Human Rights, and Catherine Delanoë-Daoud (France), attorney-at-lawat the Paris Bar. The mission noted the fragile environment of the defenders ofthe LGBTI persons’ right to health and to human rights and documented theintimidation aiming at defenders, in an environment that criminaliseshomosexuality between consenting adults. The new report presents thefindings of this investigation. The fact-finding mission also met severalwitnesses, people who were close to Eric Ohena Lembembe, and persons workingfor the judiciary in order to assess progress made in the investigation of thedeath of this defender, this journalist who was determined to support therights of LGBTI persons. A post-mission press release has also beenpublished.
The report is available in English onthe following web links:
OBS Report Cameroon February 2015 English
For more information, please contact:
• FIDH: Arthur Manet/Lucie Kröning: +33 (0) 1 43 55 25 18
• OMCT: Miguel Martín Zumalacárregui: +41 (0) 22 809 49 24