International Law Prof Blog

Thursday, November 27, 2014

The Gambia Enacts New Criminal Law Providing for Life Imprisonment for "Aggravated Homosexuality"

In his address before the United Nations General Assembly in 2013, the President of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, named homosexuality as one of the three biggest problems facing the world (along with greed and nuclear weapons).

The Gambia this year amended its Criminal Code to create a broad and vague offence of “aggravated homosexuality” punishable by life imprisonment. The amendment was signed into law on October 9, 2014. There are also increasing reports of arbitrary arrests and detention of LGBT persons in The Gambia.

“This law violates fundamental human rights – among them the right to privacy, to freedom from discrimination, and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, in a statement issued by his office in Geneva this morning. “It adds to the stigma and abuses that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people already face in The Gambia,” he stressed.

Mr. Zeid said the new law replicates a section of the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act denounced by the former High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Secretary-General, and the African Commission Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders.

“Governments have a duty to protect people from prejudice, not to add to it. Public hostility towards gay and lesbian people can never justify violating their fundamental human rights. Instead, it requires increased measures to protect them against human rights violations,” Mr. Zeid said. “This has been reaffirmed by UN human rights mechanisms and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights,” he added.

Since the new law was approved, representatives of The Gambia’s National Intelligence Agency have been reportedly conducting door-to-door enquiries to identify, arrest, and detain individuals believed to be homosexual. Some of those detained have allegedly also been subjected to violent attacks and mistreatment, Mr. Zeid said. In other countries, similar laws have also led to an increase in violence against members of the LGBT community, including mob attacks.

“I call on The Gambia to fulfil its international obligations to promote and protect the human rights of all persons without discrimination, to repeal all provisions of the Criminal Code that criminalize relations between consenting adults and to put in place an immediate moratorium on arrests on the basis of such laws,” the High Commissioner said.

(mew) (adapted from UN press releases)

Click here more more information on the arrests of LGBT persons in The Gambia.