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NGO advocates
for homosexuality
23 Jan 2007-
Malawi- A local NGO, Centre for the Development of People (Cedep), is
unhappy with some sections in the Penal Code of Malawi that criminalise
homosexuality and wants them repealed.
But Attorney General (AG) Jane Ansah said in an
interview Monday that what Malawi has is a law that could be changed by
Malawians themselves if they wanted.
“If Malawians say this is what they want, it will
be so, but I cannot say what government’s stand is. Malawians speak
through national constitutional conferences,” Ansah said.
The Blantyre-based NGO, in a press statement that
appeared in The Daily Times of Monday headlined ‘Gaps and areas of
inconsistency in the Constitution and the Penal Code of Malawi’, says
some sections are fatally responsible for government’s failure to fully
implement the National Aids Policy Provisions.
Cedep says sections 153 and 156 of the Penal Code
target any conduct or forms of behaviour that are not heterosexual.
“It should be observed that the sections do not
draw a line whether or not such practices happen in private or in public
or those involved are consenting adults or not.
“As a type of law, its distinctive mark is that it
adopts a technique that is essentially condemnatory and authorises the
use of violence against citizen and the deprivation of certain rights
and freedoms,” reads the statement.
But according to Ansah, who stressed that it was
her personal view, every law has got background, citing the right to
privacy law, which she said came against the opening of people’s mail
and taping telephones conversations.
“The issue of homosexuality was never discussed at
the national constitutional conference. If they say homosexuality is
done in private, how come people know about it? Nowhere in the world do
people have sex in public, but sex still takes place,” said Ansah,
stressing that was her own opinion as a human rights expert.
The statement by the NGO says the decision to
criminalise conduct of other forms of behaviour should have a principled
and rational basis.
“By the way, is it the State’s business to dictate
to its citizens how to play sex and with whom? And why should people be
sent to jail merely for their unique sexual orientation in circumstances
where what they do does no harm to anyone,” it reads.
It says by criminalizing sexual practices between
two consenting adults in private, the offences were a serious threat to
the citizen’s constitutional rights to privacy, dignity and freedom of
association.
The sections, the statement argues, empower the
State to violate the rights of its citizens to privacy under the guise
of enforcing morality.
Cedep recommends to the Malawi Law Commission
conducts a comprehensive review of penal statutes to determine whether
the criminal offences they create are consistent with constitutional and
international human rights standards.
The Commission, reads the statement, should be
guided by principle rather that populist rhetoric in which prejudice
against non-conformism masquerades as public morality and so called
cultural values.
Cedep’s operations manager Gift Prapeace said in
an interview yesterday they would shortly write to Malawi Law Commission
on the matter.
Few years ago Malawi Human
Rights Resource Centre (MHRRC) urged Malawians to debate whether to
legalise homosexuality or not, citing the same reasons that it impedes
on the citizens’ human rights, but their call was met with condemnation
from the general public and religious community.
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