Executed for Being Gay

•  atlanta, georgia, u.s.
• Thursday, September 01, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Currently, the nations that prescribe capital punishment for homosexuals are Iran, Mauritania, the Republic of Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

South Sudan, the world's newest country, may become a sixth nation to do so, while, if religious extremists have their way, Uganda may become the seventh.

The death penalty also is carried out against homosexuals in certain parts of Somalia and Nigeria.

Many of the countries that carry out the death penalty against homosexuals also have anti-democratic regimes, noted C. Dixon Osburn, director of the Law and Security Programme at Human Rights First.

'When other freedoms are opposed, any freedoms can be oppressed. When you don't have freedom of the press, freedom of engagement, it makes it difficult. Certainly the countries that carry out the death penalty, these are countries where just speaking up contrary to the government can have dire consequences,' Osburn told IPS.

The current penal code of South Sudan - which may become the sixth county to execute gays - is a departure from the shariah law previously practiced in the region when it was part of Sudan, yet it still criminalises sodomy.

'Right now they imposed a 10-year criminal sentence, but have not adopted the death penalty yet,' Osburn said.

President Stealva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan recently said that democracy, equality, and justice do not extend to people who are homosexual.

Recognition of homosexual people is 'not in our character... It is not even something that anybody can talk about here in southern Sudan in particular. It is not there and if anybody wants to import or to export it to Sudan, it will not get the support and it will always be condemned by everybody,' President Mayardit said.

'I'm sad to hear that Southern Sudan, as a new nation, is considering this,' Joe Beasley, president of the U.S. NGO African Ascension, told IPS. 'I was hoping it would be a lot more progressive.'

'Given the prevalence of homosexuality in the communities, in the families of nations globally, South Sudan isn't regarded any different, does not fall outside the human norm,' Beasley said.

Meanwhile, major disputes over the rights of GLBT people in Uganda continue, with one piece of legislation having been introduced to execute homosexuals who are HIV-positive.

David Bahati, a Ugandan parliamentarian, introduced the Anti- Homosexuality Bill of 2009 in the Parliament.

'You can see it creates a very difficult environment for anybody who's gay there,' Osburn said.

The legislation would also criminalise people who advocate for GLBT rights, or who provide social or medical services to GLBT people, and would require Ugandan citizens to turn in anyone who they know is homosexual.

'In Uganda, there are those trying to keep the anti- homosexuality bill from becoming law,' Osburn said, adding that he does not see as much movement to overturn the existing death penalty laws in the five countries.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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