Hillary Clinton: U.S. Will Fight Homophobia Worldwide

On Sept. 11, Hillary Clinton received the Roosevelt Institute’s Four Freedoms Award. The annual awards are “presented each year to men and women whose achievements have demonstrated a commitment to those principles which President Roosevelt proclaimed in his historic speech to Congress on January 6, 1941 as essential to democracy: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear.” In her acceptance speech, Clinton said that that the United States will fight anti-LGBT violence whereever it occurs:

(We) must condemn violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In country after country after country, young men and women are persecuted, are singled out, even murdered in cold blood, because of who they love or just based on claims that they are gay. We are starting to track violence against the LGBT community, because where it happens anywhere in the world, the United States must speak out against it and work for its end. Through our annual human rights report, we are documenting human rights abuses against LGBT communities worldwide. And we are seeking out partners at the United Nations such as Brazil, France, Sweden and the Netherlands to help us address these human rights abuses.

Clinton has previously spoken about LGBT rights as human rights. Read Clinton’s full acceptance speech here. Photo: Rex Wockner



Recent discussions on Gay Rights in Ghana; various links:

article from Modern Ghana about homosexuality (positive approach)

blog on homosexuality in Ghana by Holi Ramblings

and an article in Queerty on Ghana as a tourist destination.

Article about the arrest of a Ghanaian gay man from UK



Gay in Ghana
From gay-bashings to AIDS.
By Prince

Complete Coverage

Africa Gay Mundo

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JUNE 24, 2004. Growing up as a gay man in Ghana is really hard. People imagine that gay people are ********** and criminals. You are taunted and harassed even as a child. At school, if people think you are gay, no one wants to play with you, or even talk to you unless it is to call you names. Anybody that does befriend you risks being harassed, too, at any age. I had a friend who was recently told that he was evil and would never go to heaven because he talked to me. Pentecostal churches perform exorcisms on people seen as being gay. We're blamed for AIDS. You get the picture. I was evicted from the first room that I rented because my landlord said no woman visited me and that meant I was gay. On the street once, when I defended myself to a woman who insulted me, I was beaten up by her husband. He wanted to know how I dared answer back, "Who are you, a homosexual, to talk to my wife like that?" Muggers and thieves prey on gay men because they know the police won't do anything about it, and most victims are too ashamed to report it. Gay Bashed
It happened to me a couple of years ago. I met this guy on the beach. When we hit it off, I agreed to meet him at the market where he sold shoes. There, several men and women accused me of forcing their friend to have sex. They beat me and took everything I had, while loudly blaming gay people for causing AIDS in Ghana. We were evil people, they said, who made God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. They would not allow this to happen in Ghana. They would beat out of me the evil spirit of homosexuality. When others at the market asked what was going on, they told them that I was a thief, and they all wanted to beat me, too. I prayed to God to save me. I was sure I was going to die. Afterwards, I naively went to the police. My attackers told them I made a pass at their friend. The police took their statement, but sent them away when they couldn't show any evidence. Then the officers offered to write my statement for me, but I quickly took the pen and started writing my own because I knew they might try to implicate me in some crime. When I asked them to do something to get back my money and the other things that had been stolen, they threatened to lock me up. There aren't any laws specifically against homosexuality in Ghana, but it is common for the police to use other laws against us, like one forbidding "unnatural sex." I let the matter drop, but then I was afraid to leave the police station. My attackers would probably have been waiting for me outside. The police let me leave by a back door. I was too ashamed to tell to anyone for a year that I had been beaten and robbed. I even tried to have "normal" sex, but it didn't work. Poverty and Violence
Every now and then, in a gay-friendly bar, I see the guy who arranged the bashing. I tried to talk to him, but he's never apologized, even though he is gay, and what he did to me could easily happen to him. In Ghana, male homosexuality is lumped in with bestiality, and gay activity brings misdemeanor charges at minimum. The police have been known to arrest gay men, rape them, and let them go. Last year in August, four young men were convicted of "indecent exposure" and "unnatural carnal knowledge" and sentenced to two years each in prison. Gay people in Ghana live in such a state of fear it is a form of violence. We are isolated, harassed, and beaten. Friends commit suicide from despair. Poverty is a big problem because a lot of us have been thrown out of our houses by our families. Many don't have any education past elementary school. Those few gay men who do have good jobs are deep in the closet and won't have anything to do with gay associations, though they still want gay sex. Almost one third of the population in Ghana is below the poverty line. People come to the capital, Accra, hoping there will be more opportunities. When they don't find work they turn to prostitution. Some gay men become professional sex workers, but most do it to help ends meet.

Source:The Gully.com

What I hope to achieve with this page is that we can organise some form of legal support for victims of gaybashing, violence,abuse, discrimination, police harrasment or blackmail practices. We need to organise regular contact with human rights organisations, get a committed lawyer to specialise in GLBT rights issues and once the organisation gains structure sollicit some funding for this legal aid maybe from HIVOS, ILGA or an other Human Rights organisation. Someone with some legal background should take the lead in this. This platform can be used to get some motivated people to work together on this and to create some social backing for it. Please also see the "to do" item on legal issues.




Claiming Human Rights - in Ghana The Republic of Ghanais a member of the United Nations and the African Union. It has ratified many UN Human Rights Conventions (compare list on the right) and thus has made binding international commitments to adhere to the standards laid down in these universal human rights documents. In as far as Ghana has ratified the Optional Protocols for these Conventions or has accepted the Competence of the corresponding UN Treaty Bodies (compare list on the right), the inhabitants of Ghana and their representatives are able to invoke their human rights through these bodies. All inhabitants of Ghana may turn to the UN Human Rights Committee through procedure 1503, to the Special Rapporteurs for violations of specific human rights or to ECOSOC for women's rights violations. Since Ghana is a member state of UNESCO, its citizens may use the UNESCO procedure for human rights violations in UNESCO's fields of mandate. Employers' or workers' and certain other organizations (not individuals) of Ghana may file complaints through the ILO procedure in the cases of those conventions which Ghana has ratified. Since Ghana is an AU member, its citizens and NGOs may file complaints to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. They may also file complaints according to the EU guidelines (on Human Rights Defenders, Death Penalty and Torture) to Embassies of EU Member States and the Delegations of the European Commission. In cases of human rights violations by multinational enterprises, they may also invoke the National Contact Point in an OECD member state. Ghana has joined the International Criminal Court, it may thus be called upon in case of severe crimes.

Sentenced to prison for being gay.


Links about legal issues concerning homosexuality:
LBGT Richts in Ghana Wikepedia
http://www.ilga.org/statehomophobia/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2008.pdf
www.ilga.org
http://www.ilga.org/map/LGBTI_rights.jpg
Developments around gay rights in Zimbabwe and again latest out of Zimbabwe: 50% chance on decriminalisation of gay relationships by MDC
interesting blog
list of gay pride events around the world