President Yahya Jammeh has in the past called gay people "vermin” that his government would crush like mosquitoes. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say a new homophobic law in Gambia puts the already-persecuted lgbti community at even greater risk of abuse. The new crime of “aggravated homosexuality” carries punishments of up to life in prison. It’s recently been revealed it was approved by President Yahya Jammeh last month as part of a criminal code. That’s despite Gambian authorities failed to acknowledge the enactment of the law under repeated questioning during a United Nations review of the country’s human rights record on October 28. Among those who could be charged with “aggravated homosexuality” are “serial offenders” and people living with HIV who are deemed to be gay or lesbian. The human rights groups say when what constitutes “homosexuality” or a “homosexual act” is not defined in Gambian law. They say that makes Gambia’s criminalisation of homosexual activity, which already violates international law, even more likely to be used broadly and arbitrarily. “The new law treats consensual, private sexual activity between adults of the same sex – which should not be a crime – in the same way as rape and incest,” says Amnesty International’s Steve Cockburn. “The vague and imprecise provisions of this law could be used to arrest and detain anyone who is believed to be gay or lesbian, and contributes to the already severe climate of hostility and fear for LGBTI people in the country.” There are reports at least three women, four men, and a 17-year-old boy were arrested between November 7 and 13 and threatened with torture because of their presumed sexual orientation. Another six women were arrested on November 18 and 19 and remain in detention, according to a member of the lgbti community in Gambia. The detainees said that they were told that if they did not “confess,” including by providing the names of others, a device would be forced into their anus or vagina to “test” their sexual orientation. “Arresting and torturing people based on their sexual orientation is shameful, and inventing new crimes with even harsher sentences is scandalous,” Cockburn says. “Gambia’s new law not only flouts African human rights obligations, it violates its own constitution, which says that all people must be equal and free from discrimination before the law.” Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch say President Jammeh should have used his constitutional powers to reject the homophobic bill. “President Jammeh’s inflammatory public statements against LGBTI people have been put into practice through this odious law and the witch hunt that followed its secretive passage,” says Human Rights Watch Africa researcher Monica Tabengwa. “The law and practice are an affront to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights resolution condemning violence against LGBTI people and calling for those responsible to be brought to justice.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 25th November 2014 - 9:13am