1^st Mar 2007- Abuja - A bill that would ban same-sex marriages in Nigeria threatens democratic progress because it would also restrict freedom of speech and association, the campaign group Human Rights Watch said today.

Homosexuality is already illegal in Nigeria but the government introduced a bill last year explicitly to outlaw gay marriage in response to its legalisation in some Western countries. Offenders would go to prison for five years.

Human Rights Watch said the bill had implications beyond the issue of same-sex marriage because it would also punish anyone who advocates the rights of gay and lesbian people and would silence any discussion of the topic.

"A sweepingly homophobic bill being fast-tracked through Nigeria’s National Assembly threatens human rights and Nigeria’s democratic progress," the group said in a letter to legislators calling on them to reject the bill.

"This law strikes a blow not just at the rights of lesbian and gay people but at the civil and political freedoms of all Nigerians," Human Rights Watch said.

The group said the bill would impose a five-year jail term on anyone involved in gay clubs, processions and meetings, or "publicity and public show of same-sex amorous relationship directly or indirectly in public and in private".

The bill has not been controversial within Nigeria, a fervently religious country where the vast majority of people consider homosexuality immoral. The bill has received little publicity and prompted almost no debate.

Nigeria is split about evenly between Muslims and Christians, and both communities condemn homosexuality. At a public hearing about the bill at the National Assembly on February 14, most participants offered their support. Some human rights activists spoke against the bill but they were in the minority and their views did not reflect mainstream attitudes.

On February 23, four United Nations envoys condemned the bill as a violation of international human rights law. They said it amounted to an "absolutely unjustified intrusion" into an individual’s right to privacy.

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