LGBT rights in Southern Africa

• In Event: LGBT Rights in Latin America

Abstract

LGBT people living in different parts of Africa are subject to very different legal frameworks: in some predominantly Muslim countries, for example Somalia and parts of Nigeria, it is a capital offense, while in South Africa there is a constitutional protection against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and a right to same sex marriage. Litigation has emerged to protect LGBT people’s rights in some countries in the region, especially related to privacy and freedom of association rights. But unlike many parts of the world where LGBT rights have been expanded through litigation and legislation, in much of Africa, LGBT rights have been intensely politicized in the last decade. Conservative religious organizations and political elites have been whipping up homophobic sentiments, in some cases resulting in increasing criminalization and harsher punishments for "offences" related to same-sex intimacy, in other cases resurrecting long dormant anti-LGBT laws and enforcing them against the LGBT communities. Using case studies from southern Africa, this paper uses an analytical framework drawing on institutionalism and social mobilisation theory to illuminate how litigation has been used by LGBT organizations to stem the tide of popular anti-LGBT efforts

Author

• Siri Gloppen, University of Bergen