Violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people: organisations suggest concrete steps the government can take to counteract these violence

HisExcellency Paul Biya

Presidentof the Republic of Cameroon

Officeof the President

P.O.Box 100

Yaoundé,Republic of Cameroon

Via facsimile to the Permanent Mission ofCameroon to the United Nations:

+1-212-249-0533

His Excellency Philémon Yang

Prime Minister

Star Building

P.O. Box 1000

Yaoundé, Republic of Cameroon

Via email: via bikoro5@yahoo.fr

Via facsimile: +237-2223-5765

His Excellency Laurent Esso

Minister of Justice

Yaoundé, Republic of Cameroon

Via email: via alexmayang@yahoo.fr

Via facsimile: +237-3223-5559, +237-2223-0005

HisExcellency Pierre Moukoko Mbonjo

Minister of External Relations

Yaoundé, Republic of Cameroon

Via facsimile to thePermanent Mission of Cameroon to the United Nations:

+1-212-249-0533

Excellences:

We write to you on behalf of 12 Cameroonianand international human rights organizations that have carefully documentedmany cases in which Cameroonians have been subjected to violence because oftheir sexual orientation or gender identity, or because of their activism onbehalf of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people inCameroon. We respectfully urge you to accept and adopt recommendations, putforth at the May 2013 Universal Period Review (UPR) at the United Nations HumanRights Council, to prevent violenceagainst lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, tohold accountable the perpetrators of homophobic violence, and to ensure theprotection of human rights defenders that work with these marginalized groups.Below, we suggest concrete steps the government of Cameroon can take tocounteract homophobic violence.

We are particularly shocked and saddened by therecent murder of Eric Ohena Lembembe, executive director of the CameroonianFoundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS), who was brutally assaulted and killed in July2013. No one has been arrested, but Lembembe’s friends suspect he was killedbecause of his outspoken advocacy on behalf of LGBTI people. Unfortunately, thegovernment of Cameroon has not publicly condemned this killing, and policeinvestigations have failed to produce results. The government’s inaction riskssending a signal to all Cameroonians that they can violate the law withimpunity if they target people on the basis of their real or perceived sexualorientation and/or gender identity.

Lembembe’s case may be the most extreme, butunfortunately, it is not exceptional. The 2010 report Criminalizing Identities, published by Alternatives-Cameroun, theAssociation for the Defense of Gays and Lesbians (ADEFHO), the InternationalGay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and Human Rights Watch, documentedcases in which individuals were beaten by mobs, neighbors, police officers, andfamily members because they were suspected of being gay or lesbian.[1] InOctober 2012, Human Rights Watch and CAMFAIDS conducted additional interviewswith LGBTI people in Cameroon who had been beaten because of their sexualorientation and gender identity, including one person who was stabbed in thehead. Amnesty International’s 2013 report MakingLove a Crime includes reports of discrimination, harassment and abuse ofindividuals because of their real or perceived sexual orientation or genderidentity, including abuse by police officers and family members.[2]

Other worrisome recent incidents include thefollowing, all of which our organizations have already brought to the attentionof the Cameroonian authorities:

· Aseries of death threats sent by email and SMS to human rights lawyers AliceNkom and Michel Togué, including threats to kill their children. Both lawyershave filed complaints with police and prosecutors, with no effect. Human RightsWatch issued an open letter to President Paul Biya on February 13, 2013, tobring these threats to his attention and to ask the government to address thesethreats. We received no response.[3]

· Aburglary at Michel Togué’s office on June 16, 2013, in which sensitive legaldocuments related to his work defending LGBTI clients were stolen.[4]

· A fire at the Access Center, whereAlternatives-Cameroun conducts HIV testing and prevention work among both gayand heterosexual clients, on June 26, 2013.[5]

Further, a Cameroonian association organized a“national day of action against homosexuality.” A march, authorized by theauthorities, was held in the streets of Yaoundé on August 21, during which the association’sleaders made speeches inciting violence against LGBTI people and announced theestablishment of a militia aimed at tracking down LGBTI people.

The threat of violence and accompanyingclimate of impunity has jeopardized the work of Cameroonian associations thatconduct HIV prevention among men who have sex with men (MSM), including severalof the signatories to this letter. With no guarantees that the governmentofficials responsible for public safety will protect them, several of theorganizations have been forced to scale back outreach activities that areessential in Cameroon’s fight against HIV/AIDS.

The arbitrary application of article 347 bisof the Penal Code, which criminalizes “sexual relations between persons of thesame sex,” has the pernicious effect of legitimizing acts of violence againstlesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people. As our organizationshave documented, including in the March 2013 report Guilty by Association, by Alternatives-Cameroun, ADEFHO, CAMFAIDSand Human Rights Watch, dozens of people in Cameroon are arrested andprosecuted based on the simple suspicion that they are gay. In this context,many LGBTI people are afraid to report crimes to the police. When they do,sometimes they are treated as criminals themselves and arrested. Such arrestsviolate Cameroon’s own constitution and its international human rightsobligations, and incite hatred and violence against LGBTI people.

The Cameroonian government has an obligationto protect all of its citizens – notjust heterosexual citizens – from violence. The chair of the African Commissionon Human and Peoples’ Rights, Catherine Dupe Atoki, recently stated that theCommission vehemently opposes violence on the basis of sexual orientation.[6] Cameroonshould make a similarly unambiguous statement in order to deter homophobic andtransphobic violence.

The upcoming Human Rights Council meeting inGeneva provides an opportunity for Cameroon to take a clear stance againstviolence. We strongly urge you to acceptrecommendations regarding violence against LGBTI people, particularly therecommendations to protect LGBTI fromviolence from other members of the society (Germany); to adopt appropriate measures to tackle socialprejudices, stigmatization, harassment, discrimination and violence againstindividuals because of their sexual orientation (Uruguay); to adopt necessary measures to avoiddiscrimination, and to protect and integrate the LGBT population(Argentina); to investigate policeviolence that took place on persons because of their actual or perceived sexualorientation (Belgium); to ensureadequate protection of defenders of human rights that help LGBT persons(Belgium); and to continue to investigateacts of threats and aggression against human rights defenders and journalistsand bring to justice those perpetrators (Spain).[7]

In order to implement these recommendations,we suggest the following specific steps:

· Publiclycondemn the killing of human rights activist and community health worker EricOhena Lembembe, and call for a prompt, effective, independent and impartialinvestigation and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

· Collaboratewith Cameroonian civil society organizations and the media to develop andimplement a large-scale public awareness campaign about the basic humanity,dignity, and rights of sexual and gender minorities.

· Conducttrainings for the police, the gendarmerie, and the judiciary on sexualorientation, gender identity, and LGBTI rights, including the right to accessto justice. Collaborate with civil society organizations working on LGBTIrights to offer these trainings.

· Passlaws prohibiting incitement of violence and hate crimes, including crimesmotivated by the actual or presumed sexual orientation or gender identity ofthe victim.

· Takeall necessary measures, including legislative and administrative ones, toprohibit and eliminate discriminatory treatment on the basis of sexualorientation and gender identity, at every stage of the judicial process.

· Establishand provide funding for a working group, composed of government and civilsociety representatives that will create a National Plan of Action to eliminatediscrimination against sexual and gender minorities, with clear benchmarks foreach aspect of the plan.

· Alloworganizations working on issues related to sexuality, sexual orientation, andgender identity to officially register as non-profit organizations.

We look forward to your positive response withregard to this matter, and we are happy to meet to discuss theserecommendations further.

Sincerely,

Serge Yotta, Executive Director

AffirmativeAction

Andre Banks, Executive Director

AllOut

Parfait Behen, President

Alternatives-Cameroon

Netsanet Belay, Director, Africa Program

AmnestyInternational

Stéphane Koche, Vice President

TheAssociation for the Defense of Gays and Lesbians (ADEFHO)

Eitel Joris Ella Ella,Executive Coordinator

CameroonianFoundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS)

Karim Lahidji, President

TheInternational Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)

Daniel Bekele, Director, Africa Division

HumanRights Watch

Jules Eloundou, President

HumanityFirst Cameroon

TheInternational Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA)

Gerald Staberock, Secrétaire général

WorldOrganization Against Torture (OMCT)

Rev. Canon Albert Ogle, President

St.Paul’s Foundation for International Reconciliation

cc:

H..E.Mr. Anatole Fabien Marie Nkou, Ambassador

PermanentMission of the Republic of Cameroon to the United Nations Office in Geneva

Avenue de France 23, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland

Facsimile: + 41 22 736 21 65,

Email: mission.cameroun@bluewin.ch

Mr. Chemuta Divine Banda, President

Commission nationale de droits de l’Homme et des libertés

Yaoundé, Cameroon

Facsimile: +237.22.22.60.80

Email: cndhl@iccnet.cm

[1]Human Rights Watch, Cameroon - Criminalizing Identities: Rights Abuses in Cameroon basedon Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, November 2006, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/cameroon1010web.pdf.

[2] AmnestyInternational, Making Love a Crime: Criminalization of Same-Sex Conductin Sub-Saharan Africa, June 2013, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AFR01/001/2013/en/9f2d91b7-bc0e-4ea7-adae-7e51ae0ce36f/afr010012013en.pdf.

[3] Letter fromHuman Rights Watch to Paul Biya, president of the Republic of Cameroon,February 13, 2013,https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/02/13/letter-paul-biya-president-republic-cameroon.

[4] “Cameroon: Spate of Attacks on RightsDefenders,” Human Rights Watch news release, July 1, 2013,https://www.hrw.org/news/2013/07/01/cameroon-spate-attacks-rights-defenders.

[5] Idem.

[6] Dupe Atoki’sstatement is available at https://www.dropbox.com/s/8hd9qao6pcjtt74/Vidéo%2011-04-13%2014%2050%2007.mov(accessed September 5, 2013).

[7] The full set ofrecommendations made to Cameroon at the May 2013 UPR hearing regarding sexual orientationand gender identity are as follows. Although this letter focuses specificallyon the urgent problem of violence against LGBTI people and their defenders, thesignatories to this letter support all of these recommendations: Decriminalize consensual sexual relationsbetween adults of the same sex; protect LGBTI from violence; Undertake publicactions aimed at eliminating discrimination based on sexual orientation; Takeall necessary measures, including legislative and administrative, to prohibitand eliminate all discriminatory treatment based on sexual orientation; Respectarticle 12 of the Constitution, which protects privacy, and eliminate abuses ofthis article that lead to arbitrary arrests and prosecutions on charges relatedto consensual same sex relations; Investigate police violence that took placeon persons because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation; Ensureadequate protection of defenders of human rights that help LGBT persons.See A/HRC/24/15, United Nations Human Rights Council, July 5, 2013,http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G13/154/72/PDF/G1315472.pdf?OpenElement.