‘Commonwealth anti-gay conundrum’

continues from previous post

By Lionel Gayle

It is an open book that most governments of the Commonwealth believe there’s a direct link between sexual lifestyles and the proliferation of the deadly HIV/AIDS within their respective borders. And it’s an expensive exercise to medicate the afflicted.

Presently, they rely on the Global Fund (to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria) to buy their antiretrovirals (ARVs) – the anti-HIV or anti-AIDS drugs, and the paraphernalia to prolong the lives of their affected citizens. And it’s working.

Even though “the annual number of new HIV infections has steadily declined” worldwide and thus, fewer AIDS-related deaths, the UK-based HIV/AIDS charity, AVERT, says at the end of 2009 the Caribbean had an estimated 240,000 people living with HIV and a death count of 12,000 caused by AIDS. (http://www.avert.org/caribbean.htm)

The Caribbean, where women constitutes 50 per cent of adults living with HIV, is “the second-most affected region in the world,” after sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 12.5 million people were found living with HIV at the end of 2009 after AIDS killed about 1.3 million.

As the United Kingdom cites human rights breaches in these member states and threatens them with financial aid cuts, unless they drop their homophobic behaviour, most governments are toughening their stance against the temptation to repeal their sodomy laws.

Not many Caribbean countries, it seems, take British Prime Minister David Cameron’s threat seriously. At the end of the three-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, Western Australia (October 28-30, 2011), he reiterated his country’s intention to cut back “aid from governments that do not reform legislation banning homosexuality.”

In the BBC report in which Cameron said “British aid should have more strings attached,” the BBC website said the cut “would not reduce the overall amount of aid to any one country.”

That is hardly any comfort for Bajan writer Peter Simmons. In a recent NationNews column he called the UK’s intention a “Threat to ignore,” while noting that Barbados’ British assistance had been “negligible.”

But Ian McKnight, Executive Director of the Caribbean Vulnerable Committee Coalition (CVC), told the Antigua Observer newspaper that “Turning a blind and haughty eye” to the threat “will erode the Caribbean’s gains over the last 10 years in reducing deaths” from AIDS.

After drawing attention to the UK’s contribution to the Global Fund he said: “When they pull that out I would say at least 90 per cent of what it cost our countries to provide free treatment will be gone. Most of our countries do not have the local domestic money to foot this bill.” (http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=66652)

Meanwhile, the Global Fund has denied Uganda $270 million “needed to put over 100,000 more people on lifesaving ARVs,” a story in Uganda’s daily newspaper, NewVision (November 15, 2011) said. The reason is, “the country’s policies are deemed harsh on sexual minorities.” (Less than 50 per cent of Uganda’s 700,000 with HIV/AIDS are on ARVs).

Several African newspapers, accessed online, had reported that about two weeks before Cameron’s post-CHOGM threat, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Ghana were among African countries who “condemned” the PM after the UK had threatened to cut aid because of their harsh laws against homosexuals.

Ghana’s President John Atta Mills was prompt with his response when he scoffed at the UK’s proposal in a Daily Nation story after Cameron’s Australian interview with the BBC. Under the headline “Ghana tells off UK over threats on gays,” Atta Mills said he wouldn’t “decriminalise the practice of homosexuality even at the risk of suffering aid cuts that might follow the threats of Prime Minister Cameron.”

 

 

In Zimbabwe, The Herald newspaper (November 10, 2011), in an opinion piece, took Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai to task for flip-flopping on the gay issue. The paper accused the PM of telling the BBC on his visit to London that “homosexuality, although controversial, should be decriminalised.”

 After pointing out how Tsvangirai had agreed with President Robert Mugabe on the matter, the newspaper accused him “of wanting to please Westerners,” adding that he contradicted himself “because you want all people to view you as if you are the one who is good.”

Zimbabwe, the former British colony called Southern Rhodesia, is not a member of the Commonwealth. It withdrew from the group in 2003 when the Commonwealth refused to reinstate the country after it had been suspended from the union in 2002 “for breaching the Harare Declaration.”

By Lionel Gayle

FORTY-FOUR years after the United Kingdom repealed its sodomy laws against “consensual homosexual acts in private,” former British colonies – now members of the prestigious Commonwealth of Nations – still prosecute citizens deemed guilty of homosexual activities.

David Cameron

And there’s no indication that these independent nations will repeal their buggery laws anytime soon. In the meantime, hordes of people engaged in same-sex activities live in the 41 Commonwealth countries that “still classify same-sex sexual conduct as illegal.”

Although the matter was brought up at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), held in Perth, Western Australia (October 28-30, 2011), the discussions concluded without any promising outlook for gays and lesbians.

But Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron, saw a different picture. He told the BBC the CHOGM, in an internal report, had recommended a stop to “bans on homosexuality,” even though the three-day summit had “failed to reach agreement” on human rights reform.

A Human Rights Watch report, among other things, had said the out-dated buggery laws “invade privacy, create inequality by relegating people to inferior status, degrade people’s dignity by declaring them unnatural.”

So far, the Commonwealth has maintained that “Most ‘anti-sodomy’ laws were imposed during the colonial era, based on British law and introduced to British colonies.” Since India first adopted this law in the late 19^th century, “Many countries have kept sodomy provisions on their law books long after independence,” says a paper issued by the Commonwealth Secretariat.

At the recent meeting, many interested parties had expected encouraging response to Australia’s Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd’s address in which he called on member states to repeal their sodomy laws “targeting sexual minorities.”

Disappointingly, his presentation seemed “to have fallen on deaf ears,” said an edition of Star Online, a gay and lesbian newspaper in Australia. The publication noted that the “decriminalisation of LGBTIs,” received “no mention in the CHOGM 2011 Communiqué that lists Commonwealth leaders’ priorities for the next two years.”

The CHOGM is held every two years.  Sri Lanka will host the next summit in 2013.

A review of the communiqué, released online by the Commonwealth Secretariat, doesn’t show any listing for the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) group on its seventeen-point agenda.

Meanwhile, several Commonwealth countries are up in arms over Cameron’s threat “to withhold UK aid from governments that do not reform legislation banning homosexuality.” In the BBC report, he stressed that recipients of aid from the UK should “adhere to proper human rights” and added that “British aid should have more strings attached.”

If this is any consolation, Britain’s intention is not to aid-starve any of the countries it had weaned after years of colonialism and dependency. The BBC website says Cameron’s threat “applies only to one type of bilateral aid known as general budget, and would not reduce the overall amount of aid to any one country.”

Presently, thirty per cent (30%) of the world’s Seven Billion citizens live in the 54 countries that make up the Commonwealth of Nations. All 54 states – including Fiji who is currently on suspension – were British colonies, except Mozambique and Rwanda who were colonised by Portugal and Belgium, respectively.

One key question comes to fore in this discussion: If Britain cuts its aid, will the lack of funds interrupt HIV/AIDS programs that are allegedly linked to homosexuality in Africa and the Caribbean?

See next post for conclusion of this discourse.