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Homophobia still rife - report
14/05/2003 13:36 - (SA)
Cape Town - Many southern African leaders had singled out lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as scapegoats for their countries' problems, the Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) said in a report released on Wednesday.
The book-length report documenting pervasive harassment and violence against sexual minorities in southern Africa was released in Cape Town.
The report, , documents verbal attacks, police harassment, official crackdowns, and community violence aimed at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
It claims victims have been assaulted, imprisoned, expelled from schools, fired from jobs, denied access to medical care, evicted from their homes, and driven into exile or, in some cases, to suicide.
The organisations said that when political leaders such as Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe made speeches that gays and lesbians were "worse than dogs and pigs", it should come as no surprise that violent attacks followed.
The report examined conditions in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
A fragile equality
The report said that while South Africa prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution, it concluded that the equality guaranteed to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people was fragile, and even endangered by the "silence and foot-dragging of political leaders in South Africa."
The two organisations will call on the governments of all five countries to refrain from promoting intolerance and from inciting discrimination and abuse.
The report recommended that laws be repealed, including "sodomy laws" which violated human rights including rights to privacy and freedom of expression.
It further recommended that:
positive protections against discrimination be enacted;
awareness of rights protections and how to use them be promoted and publicised; and
mechanisms be created to address discrimination and abuse of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Human Rights Watch deputy programme director Widney Brown said research for the report was conducted from November 1998 to December 2001.
Identities of many are protected
She said the Human Rights Watch and IGLHRC had worked closely with many non-governmental organisations to identify and interview lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people, as well as other victims of abuse or discrimination based on their sexual conduct.
The identities of many people interviewed was protected.
Among those interviewed for the report were human rights activists, including women's rights activists, lawyers, HIV/Aids peer educators and organisers, academics, journalists and government officials.
Brown said she was hoping to meet government officials on Thursday or Friday to discuss the report.
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