The organization deplores the harsh laws against LGBTIQ people in Africa

Amnesty International (AI) lamented today a hardening of the legislation against LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer persons) and growing homophobic sentiment in twelve African countries, resulting in new attacks on the community in 2023.

“Across Africa, LGBTI people face disturbing backlash, ongoing protests against their identities, and enormous obstacles to their legal and social rights,” AI Director for Eastern and Southern Africa Tigere Chagutah said in a statement.

“Without a doubt, the use of the law against this group has increased their vulnerability and highlights the urgent need for coordinated regional and international intervention,” he added. AI West and Central Africa Director, Samira Daoud.

Therefore, NGO for human rightswhich is releasing a new report on the situation of LGBTIQ people in Africa this Friday, indicated that “arbitrary arrests and detentions have become very common” and in 2023 there was a “trend of tightening existing laws” against the group.

“In Africa, 31 countries still criminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations, despite the fact that this is a clear contradiction to the norms they have established African Union (AU) and international human rights standards,” the document states.

In Uganda, where intimate relations between persons of the same sex have been punishable since the colonial period, a legal text was approved last May that includes sentences of up to twenty years in prison and punishes “aggravated homosexuality” with the death penalty. , a broad term used for relationships with minors of the same sex or other vulnerable groups.

There is a group of local organizations Strategic Response Team (SRT) She recorded torture, beatings, arrests, forced anal examinations, evictions, dismissals and denial of medical care, abuses that increased as a result of debates in Parliament and the subsequent adoption of that law.

The speaks against LGBTIQ people They also came to life last year in Ghana’s Parliament, where lawmakers want to approve “one of the group’s anti-rights bills,” which are “the toughest on the continent,” according to AI.

Likewise, a representative from Kenya, where the penal code already punishes homosexual relations with up to fourteen years in prison, and the LGBTIQ community often suffers stigma and persecution, proposed a bill in the middle of this year that would tighten the penalties against these people. .

In this context, AI called on African states and governments to publicly recognize and protect the human rights of all people equally and without discrimination.

He also called on the continent’s governments to abolish it anti-LGBTIQ laws“which do not comply with regional and international human rights standards or fundamental principles of human dignity and equality.”