Gay rights in Nigeria

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Contents 1 Laws against gay sex 2 Protection based on sexual orientation 3 Removal of Investments in Nigeria 4 Recognition of same-sex couples 5 LGBT life in Nigeria 6 Footnotes 7 References

[edit] Laws against gay sex

Homosexual acts are outlawed in the Nigerian penal code and in Muslim law. In the dozen northern states under Islamic Sharia law male to male sex is punishable by death by stoning^[1]. As of March 2006, press reports say that more than a dozen people have been sentenced to death by stoning since 2000, but the sentences had not been carried out^[1]. In the civil penal code, it can carry up to a 14-year prison sentence^[2].

[edit] Protection based on sexual orientation

There is no protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation.

[edit] Removal of Investments in Nigeria

As a result of this there is a concerted campaign for all LGBT investments inside Nigeria to be removed.

[edit] Recognition of same-sex couples

On January 18, 2007 the Federal Executive Council approved a law prohibiting same sex marriages and sent it to the National assembly for urgent action. According to the Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo, the law was pushed by President Olusegun Obasanjo following demonstrations for same sex marriage during the international conference on HIV/AIDS (ICASA) in 2005. ^[3].

The proposed bill calls for five years imprisonment for anyone who undergoes, "performs, witnesses, aids, or abets" a same-sex marriage. It would also prohibit any display of a "same-sex amorous relationship" and adoption of children by gays or lesbians^[4]. The bill is expected to receive little or no opposition in Parliament. The same-sex marriage ban would make Nigeria the second country in Africa to criminalize such unions. In 2005, the Ugandan constitution was amended to ban same-sex marriage ^[1].

The same bill would also call for five years imprisonment for involvement in public advocacy or associations supporting the rights of lesbian and gay people^[1]. Included in the bill is a proposal to ban any form of relationship with a gay person. The intent of the bill is to ban anything remotely associated with being 'gay' or just gay in the country.

In February 2006, the United States State Department condemned the proposal^[1]. In March 2006, 16 international human rights groups signed a letter condemning the bill, calling it a violation of the freedoms of expression, association and assembly guaranteed by international law as well as by the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and a barrier to the struggle against the spread of AIDS^[1]. Some sources claim that Nigeria has the world's third-highest population of persons with AIDS: 3.6 million Nigerians are infected with HIV^[5].

[edit] LGBT life in Nigeria

Public hostility to homosexual relations is widespread in Nigeria, a largely conservative country of more than 130 million people, split between a mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian south^[5].

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Gay People's Chronicle, 12/15/2006, Vol. 22 Issue 24, p5-5
• Murray, Rachel, Dr. Towards Non-Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation: The Normative Basis and Procedural Possibilities before the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the African Union. Human Rights Quarterly - Volume 29, Number 1, February 2007