Country Details 2012 Human Rights Reports (U.S. Department of State) April 2013 www.globalequality.org 2012 Human Rights Reports (U.S. Department of State) Country Details Section 1. Police/State Violence........................................3 Section 2. Transgender-Specific Incidents........................16 Section 3. Lesbian-Specific Incidents...............................25 Section 4. Discrimination in Services:..............................29 Employment, Housing and Health Section 5. Freedoms of Association, Assembly, Speech...35 Section 6. Reparative/Conversion Therapy and “Corrective Rape”..............................................39 Section 7. Youth and Schools............................................42 Section 8. Religion.............................................................47 Section 9. Internet Freedoms............................................51 Section 10. Positive Developments.....................................53 www.globalequality.org 2012 Human Rights Report U.S. Department of State Police/State Violence AFRICA Gambia, The Cameroon In a January 2011 speech to army officers, President Jammeh announced he wanted a In July 2011 police detained three men professional army “free of gays and saboteurs.” returning from a bar in Yaounde because two of the men appeared effeminate, according to the There was strong societal discrimination Association for the Defense of Homosexuality against LGBT individuals, further enhanced and Human Rights Watch. The three were jailed by statements by President Jammeh and the for one week before being charged, and the enforcement of a law, nicknamed Operation two who allegedly appeared effeminate (Jonas Bulldozer, designed to enforce harsh penalties Kumie and Frankie Djome) were beaten on the for criminals but also directed at gay men. There soles of their feet until they confessed to being were no LGBT organizations in the country. gay, according to a civil society group working on their behalf; the third man was released. Ghana After repeated postponements, a trial was held in September 2011 at which the two men who LGBT persons faced widespread discrimination, confessed to being gay were sentenced to five as well as police harassment and extortion years in prison and fined 200,000 CFA francs attempts. Gay men in prison were often ($400). An arrest warrant was issued for the subjected to sexual and other physical abuse. third man, who was convicted and sentenced in absentia to the same punishment. A final ruling Kenya was expected in October but was rescheduled for January 2013. Prison officers, who received little applicable training, discriminated against prisoners with Congo, Democratic Republic of mental problems and transgender prisoners. Homosexuality remained a cultural taboo, and During the year multiple political leaders harassment by SSF was believed to have continued. made public statements critical of same-sex relationships and LGBT rights. For example, Cote d’Ivoire Prime Minister Odinga reportedly suggested during a political rally in Langata that gays should Societal stigmatization of the LGBT community be put in prison. Eldoret MP and ICC indictee was widespread, and police, gendarmes, and William Ruto, labeled by Gay Trust Kenya as members of the armed forces reportedly beat, “persistently homophobic,” issued repeated imprisoned, verbally abused, extorted, and statements criticizing same-sex relationships humiliated members of the LGBT community, and accused the KNCHR of pushing a foreign particularly gays. agenda for its defense of the human rights of LGBT persons. Ethiopia Liberia There were periodic detainments of some in the LGBT community, combined with interrogation In October a law enforcement officer refused to and alleged physical abuse. investigate allegations of the beating of a gay man. The police subsequently arrested one gay 4 www.globalequality.org man. Activists alleged that the LNP or other Uganda law enforcement agencies targeted or harassed those they believe to be LGBT. On October 1, a local news station broadcast a video of a transgender individual being Namibia harassed and humiliated at a local police station in Kisenye District. The video showed police OutRight Namibia claimed police often ridiculed officers aggressively touching, taunting, and LGBT persons when they reported cases of forcibly undressing the individual, whom the abuse, and this secondary victimization often police subsequently paraded before a crowd dissuaded victims from reporting. of onlookers. Authorities did not file charges against the police officers; they released the Senegal transgender individual without charge. The media rarely reported acts of hatred or Zimbabwe violence against LGBT persons. In 2010 HRW released a report, Fear of Life: Violence against On August 11, police raided the offices of GALZ, Gay Men and Men Perceived as Gay in Senegal. assaulting and arresting 44 GALZ members; The report discussed cases of violence against authorities released them a day later. Police then gay men and the legal and cultural milieu that visited the homes and workplaces of the arrested fostered such violence. While high-profile cases persons over the course of the following weeks, such as those cited in the report were from effectively “outing” them to their families and 2009 and earlier, local human rights groups employers, resulting in some losing their homes reported that LGBT persons still faced frequent or jobs, or being shunned by their families. A harassment by police, including arrest based week after the initial raid, police raided GALZ’s only on second-hand reports and poor treatment offices again, this time removing computer in detention due to their sexual orientation. equipment and files. Police reviewed the seized items for evidence to warrant prosecution South Africa (e.g., pornography or materials “promoting homosexuality”). Unsuccessful, police then A 2011 HRW report highlighted violence informed GALZ’s leadership to “proceed by way and discrimination faced by lesbians and of summons.” At year’s end GALZ was awaiting transgender persons. The report documented notice from the Office of the Attorney General cases of “secondary victimization” of lesbians, as to whether it would be charged with illegally including cases in which police harassed, running a private voluntary organization, ridiculed, and assaulted victims of homophobic despite being a registered membership violence when they reported crimes. organization. The intended effect of targeting a vulnerable group (see section 6) effectively left Tanzania GALZ unable to resume regular activities at its offices, due to fear of further raids. On July 2, another LGBTI Support Unit/CHRP employee reported that an off-duty police officer Leadership in both ZANU-PF and MDC-T, attacked him, and he reportedly sustained an including President Mugabe and Prime Minister injury to his hand. Police took no action against Tsvangirai, have publicly criticized the LGBT the alleged assailant. community and warned against the inclusion of LGBT rights in the constitution. In 2011 5 www.globalequality.org Mugabe publicly blamed the LGBT community agencies to report violence against them, for Africa’s ills and declared its members to be because they feared they would be met with worse than “pigs and dogs.” In February Mugabe hostility, ridicule, and occasionally violence. said that same-sex marriage was “insanity” and Additionally they did not want law enforcement “satanic.” officers to notify their employers of their sexual orientation. CENTRAL and SOUTH ASIA Kyrgyz Republic Afghanistan Human rights organizations reported that police in Osh continued to arrest individuals for The law criminalizes consensual same-sex the “crime” of homosexuality even though the sexual conduct activity, and there were reports government decriminalized consensual same- that harassment, violence, and detentions by sex sexual conduct in 1998. the police increased significantly during the year. From February to October, the NGO Labrys recorded 18 cases of police extortion of gay Bangladesh persons in Osh. The majority of cases included physical abuse. Once arrested and known to the Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) police, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender groups reported that police used the law as a (LGBT) persons were susceptible to a continual cycle of extortion and exploitation. Because pretext to bully LGBT individuals, particularly same-sex sexual conduct is a societal taboo in the those seen as effeminate men. South, it was nearly impossible to mount legal challenges to such abuse. Observers reported India that, once outed, LGBT persons in the southern part of the country had to flee to Moscow. Some police committed crimes against LGBT persons and used the threat of arrest to coerce On April 19, Delo No, a mainstream weekly victims not to report the incidents. Several newspaper focused on legal issues and crime, states, with the aid of NGOs, offered police published an article entitled “Sexual Minorities education and sensitivity training. Are Becoming Aggressive.” The article chronicled the case of Mikhail Kudryashov, On April 12, a transgender woman, Diya Rai, whose conviction on pornography distribution filed a complaint with the West Bengal Human charges was upheld by the Supreme Court. Rights Commission alleging that police in The article extensively criticized homosexual Baguiati illegally detained her at the police conduct and Kudryashov himself for being station for nine hours and taunted