60 years ago this year the United Nations set out a universal statement of rights and freedoms which has been the foundation stone on which an impressive international human rights regime and countless practical advances in human rights have been built.
Reflecting global values of equality and justice, the UDHR inspired the struggle to end apartheid in South Africa, and to promote democracy in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia. It has led to progress to end the death penalty; to outlaw torture; to promote the equality of women; to protect the rights of children, disabled and indigenous people, and to turn the tide against impunity for state crimes.
It has also helped to galvanise a worldwide community of ordinary men and women dedicated to fighting for justice and equality. But this is not a moment for uncritical celebration. The challenge of making rights real, of closing the gap between the promise of the Universal Declaration and ongoing human rights violations, remains. And that gap is particularly large for the world’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people.
Twenty years after the Universal Declaration, the UK decriminalised homosexuality. Decriminalisation was the legal domino whose fall eventually led to the adoption of a wide range of initiatives over the preceding 40 years aimed at securing legal equality for gay men, lesbians and bisexuals in this country. These included protection from discrimination, the extension of the right to adopt and foster children, and the recognition of same sex relationships.
Unfortunately in much of the rest of the world the decriminalisation domino still hasn’t fallen. In fact, in more than 70 countries homosexuality remains illegal. This consigns the vast majority of the world’s gay men, lesbians and bisexuals to a life of criminality over which they have no choice. In twelve of these countries homosexuality is punishable by death.
The temptation to believe that such laws are relics of a bygone past and aren’t enforced was sadly dispelled with the public hanging in 2005 of two Iranian teenagers sentenced under Sharia law for the ‘crime’ of homosexuality. Human rights groups report that hangings of gay men continue. Elsewhere, the use of anti-gay laws to intimidate and silence lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people is alive and well.
Last year in Nigeria and Cameroon large-scale arrests of gay men took place and in Uganda sexuality rights activists went into hiding after senior government ministers called for their arrest.
Uganda’s Radio One announced that Deputy Attorney General Fred Ruhindi had called for the criminal law to be used against lesbians and gays. He was reported as saying, “I call upon the relevant agencies to take appropriate action because homosexuality is an offence under the laws of Uganda. The penal code in no uncertain terms punishes homosexuality and other unnatural offences.”
Ending state-sanctioned harassment, imprisonment, corporal punishment and execution of gay men, bisexuals and lesbians around the world is urgent and demands our attention. The human rights case is clear: illegality renders gay people invisible and robs them of the opportunity to exercise their basic rights.
But there is also a compelling practical case: laws which criminalise homosexuality deprive people of their right to information about their sexuality, including accurate information about HIV and AIDS and how to prevent its transmission.
Gay and other men who have sex with men are disproportionately affected by HIV all around the world. What’s worse is that the UN estimates that only one in every ten gay men in the developing world has access to even the most basic HIV information and prevention services.
Illegality forces gay men underground and requires organisations providing them with sexual health services to operate in the shadows. Effectively responding to HIV requires honesty and openness neither of which are possible when being open and honest can lead to prison or even death.
The continued criminalisation of gay male sexual activity and the fear and prejudice that this engenders threatens more than just freedom—it threatens life. State sanctioned homophobia undermines efforts to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS and denies already marginalised people their right to non-discriminatory health and social care.
Our collective failure to tackle these laws continues to put individuals at risk of infection and disease and impedes access to HIV information and services for those who need it most. Changing them is not only a moral imperative, but is also key to the sustained success of prevention, testing, and treatment programs. So the case is clear. But as always moving this issue forward, like all human rights issues, requires political will.
Some sixty years after the Universal Declaration we now have a wide range of international conventions and declarations dealing with specific groups and their human rights issues, including racial minorities, women, children, people with disabilities and indigenous and ethnic groups. Attempts to develop a UN convention or statement that recognises the rights of gay, lesbian and trans people has unfortunately been less successful.
In contrast, inspiring efforts to protect and promote gay rights are being mounted every day around the world including in some countries with hostile and overtly homophobic governments. Across Africa, the Middle East and in Asia gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans activists and their allies are coming together, often in the face of great personal danger. In doing so they are bringing visibility to their cause and building the community understanding and support necessary to create the political will to acknowledge that sexual minorities exist and that they have rights.
Working tirelessly to close the gap between rhetoric and reality, 60 years after the Universal Declaration promised freedom and equality for all, these activists deserve our practical and moral support.
Joseph O’Reilly is a Green Party member and activist and the Founder of Free & Equal which seeds, strengthens and links LGBT activist and organisations in the developing world.
For more information, see www.free-and-equal.org or email joseph@free-and-equal.org
