There is an increasingly polarized global debate about the place of “gay rights” within international human rights law. On the one hand, many countries, particularly in the global North, have approved legal reforms repealing discriminatory legislation and granting equal rights—most recently including the recognition of same sex marriage. On the other, there are a number of countries, particularly ex-British colonies, that criminalize consensual sexual relations between people of the same sex. Attempts to change these laws have met with intense opposition on the grounds of tradition, culture and religion.
Nowhere is this debate more visible than in Africa, where 34 countries (out of a total of 52) criminalize consensual same-sex relations—five with the death penalty. NGOs working on gay rights issues face a number of hurdles in trying to challenge these laws, ranging from refusals to register LGBTI groups and ridicule in the press, through to open police harassment and the arrest of activists. South Africa stands apart from this trend, being the first country in the world—and the only country in Africa—to enshrine constitutional protection to all persons regardless of sexual orientation. However, nearly twenty years after the adoption of the constitution, homophobic attitudes and violence remain widespread.
In many parts of the world, surveys on attitudes towards sexuality are commonplace, and have been widely used by human rights activists to press their case for decriminalization and equal rights. Similar surveys in Africa are far more rare. As a result we know very little about what the public thinks about securing and protecting the rights of sexual minorities across the continent. The Other Foundation is supporting ground breaking work in South Africa to begin to address this gap in knowledge as part of an ongoing work to strength advocacy efforts in the Southern African region.
