More Than a Name: State-Sponsored Homophobia and Its Consequences in Southern Africa

• NCJ Number: 200569
• Author(s): Scott Long; Gail Cooper
• Date Published: 2003
• Length: 309 pages
• Corporate Author: Human Rights Watch
• Sale Source: Human Rights Watch
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

In this report, Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission document and analyze the impact of state-sponsored homophobia in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Zambia, and Botswana.

Abstract

This report documents statements by the political leaders of these countries that have denounced gays and lesbians in their countries and set the tone for a climate of intolerance and public support for the erosion of the basic principles of human rights for gays and lesbians. As is documented in this report, the verbal attacks by political leaders have often led to persecution and violence against gays and lesbians. In Zimbabwe and Namibia, in particular, public vilification has sparked police harassment of those who do not comply with the popular norms for sexual conduct and gender expression. Official crackdowns have often followed immediately after politicians' statements against homosexuals. In the communities where they live, men and women accused of homosexuality have been assaulted and often driven underground. Some have been expelled from schools or jobs and from hospitals and families. Some have been driven into exile, and others have committed suicide. In Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, laws that criminalize consensual homosexual conduct are used to justify human rights abuses. Such laws violate international protections for the right to privacy and against discrimination. This report calls on southern African states and their leaders to refrain from statements that promote intolerance; to repeal laws that violate human rights, including the rights to privacy and freedom of expression; to change or repeal other laws that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity; and to enact positive protections against discrimination. Further, where states have constitutional protections against human rights violations, such as in South Africa, these protections must be implemented through law, policy, and practice. Appended study methodology and a supplementary review of the criminalizing of sexual conduct in colonial and post-colonial southern African societies