NO RIGHTS FOR GAYS: JUSTICE MINISTER

Chief Mgwagwa Gamedze, the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, says Swaziland will not give human rights to gay people, because they don’t exist in the kingdom.

Or, he concedes, if they do exist there are too few of them to worry about.

Gamedze was responding to criticism of Swaziland by a United Nations working group on human rights that said the kingdom should enact equality laws for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people.

He told the Times Sunday newspaper government would not recognise and legalise same-sex marriages because homosexuals either do not exist or form a minority in Swaziland.

The newspaper reported Gamedzesaying it was hard to introduce rights for people who did not exist. If they existed, he said, they were very few – ‘very very few’.

The newspaper reported Gamedze saying, ‘It was difficult for government to formulate a policy on homosexuals or enact a law to recognise them because they actually formed a minority if ever they existed.’

The minister said the position of Swaziland on homosexuals was that ‘the numbers do not permit us to start processing a policy’.

Gamedze’s ignorance is breath-taking, because, of course, there is no state in the world where LGBT people are in a majority, but that doesn’t stop other countries, such as South Africa, enacting laws to ensure members of this community have their rights. In a democracy it is up to the majority to ensure that minorities have the same rights as everyone else.

Gamedze showed further ignorance when he told the Times Sunday that there was no LGBTgroup in Swaziland that was asking for recognition. In fact one group called HOOP (House of Our Pride), had reported to the very same UN working group that had criticised the Swazi government.

HOOP had said LGBT‘are hugely discriminated against in the Swazi community, as they are not recognized at community meetings and their points are often not minuted at these meetings nor are they allowed to take part in community services’.

Police often ridicule LGBTpeople if they report they have been victims of violent crime, HOOP reported

HOOP is calling on the Government to include LGBT issues in its agenda to help to increase the acceptance of LGBT, even at community levels in Swaziland.

Not everyone in Swaziland is as ignorant as Gamedze.

Muzi Mhlanga, the Secretary General of the Labour Coordinating Council (LCC), told the Times Sunday the kingdom’s three main labour organisations backed human rights for LGBT people.

He said that rights for gays and lesbians were discussed everywhere they attended conferences. He said the LGBT community should not be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation.

He said, ‘We would definitely fight for a [union] member who has been fired or expelled from school or work on the basis of sexual orientation.’

See also

SWAZI MINISTER LIES TO UN ON GAYS

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/10/swazi-minister-lies-to-un-on-gays.html

GAY PREJUDICE RIFE IN SWAZILAND

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/09/gay-prejudice-rife-in-swaziland.html

SWAZILAND HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/11/swaziland-human-rights-report.html

SWAZI MINISTER LIES TO UN ON GAYS

Mgwagwa Gamedze, the Acting Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs of Swaziland, lied to the United Nations when he said that gays and lesbians in the kingdom had not asked for repressive laws to be overturned.

The official summary of working party of the Universal Periodical Review of human rights in Swaziland held on 4 October 2011 states, ‘Mr Gamedze specifically addressed the issues of same-sex relationships and the death penalty. He noted that while consensual same-sex relations are illegal in Swaziland, the Government does not pursue prosecutions. He also claimed that so far the LGBTI movement in Swaziland had not challenged these policies and clarified that the Government would only look into these issues if and when this happened.’

This simply not true and Gamedze knows it. In fact, one of the written submissions to the working party was from HOOP (House of Our Pride), a support group for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Inter-sex (GLBTI) in Swaziland. (Click here to read it).

It listed a range of discriminations that GLBTI people in Swaziland suffer, including in faith groups, at work and through police harassment.

In its submission, HOOP stated the Swazi Government needed to do more for LGBTI people. ‘These measures include: the de-criminalization of LGBTI practices currently treated as sodomy and the provision of extensive health care.’

In a list of recommendations to the government, HOOP included:

‘LGBTI activities should be decriminalized and given due recognition in the society.

‘The government of Swaziland should bring into place laws that protect LGBTI people’s rights at workplaces, social, faith and community gatherings and also protect their right to inherit their partner’s belonging, if willed to them on their partner’s passing away. The above law should be strictly enforced and culprits severely punished.’

So there you have it. Gamedze lied to the UN working party. LGBTI people have challenged government policies and they want laws changed.

Gamedze told the working party that the government would only look into the GLBTI issues once these polices had been ‘challenged’.

The policies have been challenged, so now the government must look into them. Unless, of course, the promise to do so is just another lie from Gamedze and the Swaziland Government.

See also

GAY PREJUDICE RIFE IN SWAZILAND

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/09/gay-prejudice-rife-in-swaziland.html

SWAZI HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT OUT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/10/swazi-human-rights-report-out.html

GAY PREJUDICE RIFE IN SWAZILAND

Discrimination against gay and lesbian people in Swaziland is rife and extends to workplaces, the churches and even on to the streets.

This has been revealed in a submission to the United Nations review on human rights in Swaziland.

HOOP (House of Our Pride), a support group for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Inter-sex (GLBTI) people, reported, ‘It is a common scene for GLBTI to be verbally insulted by by-passers in public places. [There is] defamatory name calling and people yelling out to see a GLBTI person’s reproductive part are some of the issues facing GLBTI in Swaziland.’

‘Faith houses have been known to discriminate against GLBTI, advocating for the alienation of GLBTI in the family and society, while maintaining that these GLBTI are possessed by demons.’

HOOP also says GLBTI people are often discriminated against at work and there have been well known cases of this.

In one of the first reports of its kind detailing sexual orientation discrimination in Swaziland, HOOP reveals, ‘GLBTI are hugely discriminated against in the community, as they are not recognized at community meetings and their points are often not minuted at these meetings nor are they allowed to take part in community services.’

Police often ridicule GLBTI people if they report they have been victims of violent crime. ‘A good example of such practices is in the on-going case of a well-known GLBTI in Swaziland, Patricia Dludlu, who is currently in incarceration for a different offence but is constantly ridiculed by the media and police because of her sexuality.’

HOOP is calling on the Swaziland Government to include GLBTI issues in its agenda ‘as this will help to increase the acceptance of GLBTI, even at community levels’.

It also wants GLBTI activities to be decriminalized and given due recognition in society.

It says, ‘The government of Swaziland should bring into place laws that protect GLBTI people’s rights at workplaces, social, faith and community gatherings and also protect their right to inherit their partner’s belonging, if willed to them on their partner’s passing away.’

See also

PRESS VILIFIED OVER LESBIAN’S DEATH

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/01/press-vilified-over-lesbians-death.html