Resolution on LGBTI
We participants at the NGO Forum meeting in preparation for the 48th session of the Africa Commission on Human and Peoples Rights held from the 7th to the 9th November 2010 in Banjul, The Gambia,
Considering the Human Rights situation in Africa generally and, inter alia, the situation of human rights of lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender persons facing human rights violations due to their sexual orientation and gender identity in several countries particularly in Uganda, South Africa, Cameroon, Senegal and Malawi;
Considering the provisions of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Charter of the United Nations and other regional and international human rights and international humanitarian law instruments to which Member States are party;
Recalling that in order to be granted observer status before the Africa Commission, an applying NGO must, in terms of the Resolution for the Granting of and for Maintaining Observer Status with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (1999), have objectives and activities ‘in consonance with’ the fundamental principles and objectives in the African Union Constitutive Act and the African Charter;
Recalling that the promotion and protection of human rights in accordance with the African Charter and other relevant human rights instruments is one the objectives of the AU under Articles 3(h) and that the promotion of gender equality, respect for human rights and the promotion of social justices are among the principles of the AU under Articles 4(1), (m) and (n);
Further recalling the Africa Commission’s long-standing practice of granting observer status to NGOs in order to support its mandate to protect and promote human rights in Africa, including to NGOs whose activities and objectives extend to the protection and promotion of the rights of sexual minorities and people;
Noting that decision of the Commission to decline the granting of observer status to a qualifying African NGO is a negation of the protective mandate of the Africa Commission and a point of departure that the human rights of all African, irrespective of their sexual orientation and gender identity, are protected under the African Charter under Article 2.
Calls on the NGO Forum to:
- Urge all NGOs with Observer Status to address the rejection of CAL by the Africa Commission, as a cause of concern, in their individual statements;
- Ask all civil society groups to document and report human rights violations and state-sanctioned violence against people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity to be able to increase the number of submissions made to the SR to facilitate their response and fact finding.
The NGO forum calls on the African Commission to:
- Give the Coalition of African Lesbian reasons for its decision;
- Condemn all state sanctioned violence against African people due to their sexual orientation and gender identity;
- Call on AU Member States to respect their obligation to protect the rights of all persons within their borders against violations by non-state actors;
- Address religiously based violence that target people due to their sexual orientation and gender identity;
- Urge all member states to repeal all legislations and policies based on discrimination against African people due to their sexual orientation and gender identity;
- Address negative cultural practices perpetuated against African people due to their sexual orientation and gender identity.
Done at Banjul, November 9th, 2010
