Burundi: Repeal law Criminalizing Homosexual Conduct

[4/24/2009]

Discriminatory Law Violates Basic Rights, Will Hamper AIDS Prevention

 

For Immediate Release

(Bujumbura, April 24, 2009) – The Burundian government’s decision to criminalize homosexual conduct violates fundamental human rights and should be reversed immediately, Human Rights Watch and 62 other Burundian, African, and international human rights organizations said in a joint statement issued today. The statement came after President Pierre Nkurunziza secretly signed the legislation on April 22.

In February, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to reject a November 2008 decision by the National Assembly to criminalize same-sex relations. However, under the Burundian constitution, the National Assembly prevails in cases of conflict between the two houses of Parliament.

President Nkurunziza rejected calls by international diplomats to ask Parliament to revise the article in question. Nkurunziza had previously demonstrated his hostility to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people by making a statement on television in January that homosexuality was a “curse.” Although he signed the legislation on April 22, four high-ranking police and Ministry of Justice officials contacted by Human Rights Watch on April 24 were not yet aware that the law had been promulgated, raising questions about the procedure followed.

“Burundi has taken a disappointing step backward by legalizing discrimination,” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “The government has fallen back on ‘custom’ and ‘culture’ to justify this repressive step – but there can be no justification for stripping some of Burundi’s people of their fundamental rights.”

While the bill was under review in Parliament, the president’s staff made calls to a number of legislators, attempting to influence their votes in favor of the measure. The president’s party, CNDD-FDD, staged a mass protest on March 12 calling for the criminalization of homosexual conduct, bussing in schoolchildren and adults from rural provinces, many of whom, according to journalists present at the event, had no understanding of what they were protesting.

The law’s Article 567, which penalizes consensual same-sex sexual relations by adults with up to two years in prison, violates the rights to privacy and freedom from discrimination. These rights are protected by Burundi’s Constitution and enshrined in its international treaty commitments, notably the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The organizations further expressed concern that the law will hamper Burundi’s efforts to fight AIDS. The 2001 UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS recognizes that discrimination against vulnerable groups undermines public health responses to HIV/AIDS.

According to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, arrests on the basis of sexual orientation are, by definition, human rights violations. The 63 organizations pledged to monitor carefully any arrests made on the basis of the law.

“The government claims to support human rights, but has passed a law that not only violates the right to privacy, but also discriminates against a group of citizens who have been recognized as vulnerable to HIV/AIDS,” said David Nahimana, president of the Burundian human rights organization Ligue Iteka, one of the signatories to the statement. “These aspects of the Penal Code should be revised immediately.”

Burundian and international human rights organizations, including those defending the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons have campaigned against the criminalization of homosexual conduct in Burundi since November 2008, when the National Assembly passed a draft revision of the criminal code that would criminalize homosexual conduct for the first time in Burundi’s history.

“The state is sending the wrong message to its citizens: that they can now persecute people of a different sexual orientation,” said Cary Alan Johnson, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). “This is a regressive and unfortunate step.”

The statement’s signatories said that the Government of Burundi should promptly repeal the provision in question, Article 567 of the Penal Code.

To read the joint statement by 63 human rights organizations, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/node/82259

For more Human Rights Watch reporting on the new penal code of Burundi and its human rights implications, please visit:
•    “Burundi: Assembly Abolishes Death Penalty, Criminalizes Torture,” December 2008 news release:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/12/03/burundi-assembly-abolishes-death-penalty-makes-torture-crime
•    “Background on the 2008 Penal Code of Burundi,” December 2008:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2008/12/03/background-2008-penal-code-burundi
•    February 2008 letter from Human Rights Watch to President Pierre Nkurunziza and the Burundian Senate:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/02/16/letter-president-nkurunziza-and-senate-burundi-draft-criminal-code-criminalize-homos
•    Burundi country page: http://www.hrw.org/en/africa/burundi

For more information, please contact:
In New York, Boris Dittrich (English, Dutch, German): +1-917-535-3863 (mobile)
In Brussels, Reed Brody (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): +32-498-625786 (mobile)
In London, Carolyn Norris (English, French): +44-78-5172-1744 (mobile)
In Washington, DC, Jon Elliott (English, French): +1-202-612-4348; or +1-917-379-0713 (mobile)
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The signatories to the petition include:

African Rights Activists Group; African Services Committee; Alliance Burundaise contre le SIDA; Alliance Rights Nigeria (ARN); Alternatives-Cameroun; Amnesty International; Arc-en-Ciel (Côte d’Ivoire); ARC International (Switzerland / Canada); Association Africaine Solidarité (Burkina Faso); Association Nationale de Soutien aux séropositifs et Malades du Sida (ANSS, Burundi); Changing Attitude Nigeria; Dignity Association (Sierra Leone); Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights; Foundation for Aids Research – Amfar; Friends of RAINKA (Zambia); Front Line – The International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders; Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK); Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ); Global Rights; Groupe de réflexion des homosexuelles du Burundi; Health Gap; Human Rights First; Human Rights Watch; ICJ Kenya; INCRESE Nigeria; International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC); International Women Health Coalition (TBC); Intersex South Africa; Ishtar (Kenya); Joint Working Group (South Africa)*; Kenyan Human Rights Commission; Ligue Iteka (Burundi); Minority Women in Action (East Africa); Observatoire Ineza pour la Défense des Droits des Enfants (Burundi); Renaissance Santé Bouaké (Côte d’Ivoire); Sexual Minorities Against AIDS in Nigeria (SMAAN); The Independent Project for Equal Rights (Nigeria); and Transgender Education and Advocacy (Kenya).

*The Joint Working Group is a coalition of 26 South Africa-based human rights and faith organizations including: ACTIVATE Wits; Behind the Mask; Coalition of African Lesbians; D Gayle; Durban Lesbian and Gay Community and Health Centre; Engender; Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW); Gay and Lesbian Network; Gay and Lesbian Memory in Action (GALA); Gay Umbrella; Gender Dynamix; Glorious Light Metropolitan Community Church; Good Hope Metropolitan Community Church; Hope and Unity Metrop

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