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UN raises red flag over Nigeria's law on homosexuality
PHOTO | FILE UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at a past press briefing. Ban Ki-moon on January 15, 2014 raised concern over a new law prohibiting same-sex marriage in Nigeria.
What you need to know:
- The law sets 14-year jail term for same-sex couples who live together and a10-year term for “any person who registers, operates or participates in gay clubs, societies and organisations or directly or indirectly makes public show of same-sex amorous relationship in Nigeria.”
- Mr Ban's critical response to the law follows similar remarks made on Tuesday by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.
NEW YORK
The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon on Wednesday raised concern over a new law prohibiting same-sex marriage in Nigeria.
The law sets 14-year jail term for same-sex couples who live together and a10-year term for “any person who registers, operates or participates in gay clubs, societies and organisations or directly or indirectly makes public show of same-sex amorous relationship in Nigeria.”
"UN chief notes with alarm reports that police in northern Nigeria have arrested individuals believed by the authorities to be homosexuals, and may even have tortured them,” added the spokesperson.
Mr Ban's critical response to the law follows similar remarks made on Tuesday by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.
“Rarely have I seen a piece of legislation that in so few paragraphs directly violates so many basic, universal human rights,” Ms Pillay said.
“Rights to privacy and non-discrimination, rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, rights to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention: this law undermines all of them.”
These expressions of concern by two top UN officials along with a similar criticism by the US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday, are the latest examples of international opposition to anti-homosexuality legislation in Africa.
A US State Department official last month urged the Ugandan government to “stop enactment” of a Bill approved by the country's Parliament that criminalises homosexual relations between consenting adults.
