Africa-Press – Mauritius. Upwards of 400 activists and organizations from around the world attended the Pan Africa ILGA conference that took place this week in Mauritius. The conference, which took place at the Ravenala Attitude Hotel | Solitude, focused on the vitality of Pride and resilience amid an environment where LGBTQ and intersex rights remain under threat.
The conference also sought to promote LGBTQ and intersex rights in Africa and highlight the severity of homophobia and transphobia on the continent. The World Bank Group estimates the economic cost of homophobia and transphobia on the continent amounts to $14 billion a year due to lost productivity, health care and education.
Despite the harrowing experiences some of the delegates shared, the conference highlighted some of the positive strides that some African countries have undertaken to combat homophobia and transphobia.
Angola, Botswana, Mozambique and Seychelles are among the nations that have decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations over the last few years.
(Homosexuality remains criminalized in Mauritius.)
“Five years ago I spoke at the Pan Africa ILGA conference in Botswana,” said Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the outgoing U. N. independent expert on LGBTQ issues.
“This week I had the honor of addressing the conference on the decolonization of law, mores and language and the great strengths of our movement going forward. Great to see these African gatherings bookend my mandate. ”
Doctor Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, a British LGBTQ and intersex activist who was also in attendance, said she learned a lot at the conference and urged activists to remain resolute.
“Steve Letsike (director of Access Chapter Two, a South Africa-based LGBTQ and intersex rights organization) gave an opening speech, which was powerful, moving and a direct call to action for donors, partners to keep on working in unity with each other as the urgency is very real in Africa, Victor Madrigal-Borloz also gave a brilliant account of his mandate as it comes to an end in October, and we thank him for all that he has done in fulfilling this mandate,” said Opoku-Gyimah.
“My African queer siblings, comrades, friends who are on the front lines organizing, mobilizing, and movement building, continue to take my breath away, it certainly feels like home when I am around such a chosen family, many of whom I have not seen in such a long time, my experience is humbling.
Collectif Arc-en-Ciel, a Mauritian LGBTQ and intersex rights group that co-organized the conference, commended the event for offering a unique platform to explore and engage in discussions that enhance LGBTQ and intersex rights on the African continent.
Outgoing Pan Africa ILGA Chair Barbra Wangare charged everyone to keep working on dismantling all form of ignorance, prejudice and intolerance until a safer society is achieved.
Omar Van Reenen of Equal Namibia also urged young people to protect the rights of the LGBTQ and intersex community. “Queer youth are the key to emancipation across Africa.
We are the epitome of what a born-free Africa looks and feels like,” said Van Reenen. “Until liberation rings, it is African queer youth who will carry the baton to a more equal Africa.
By 2030, African youth will be 42 percent of global youth. We are tomorrow’s stewards of democracy and protectorates of constitutionalism. We are queerly African and proud. We are queer and we are here. ” Jessica Stern, the special U. S. envoy for the promotion of LGBTQ and intersex rights abroad, and U. S.
Agency for International Development Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam and USAID LGBTQI+ Inclusive Development Advisor Ryan Kaminski are among those who also attended the conference.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on May 29 signed his Anti-Homosexuality Act, which contains a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality. U. N.
High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday announced his office in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, will close after the government did not “renew the Host Country Agreement.
” Türk said an office in the city of Gulu shut down on June 30 and offices in Kampala and the town of Moroto will close on Saturday.
“Türk warned against retrogression from Uganda’s commitments under the international human rights treaties it has ratified, including in the passage of the deeply discriminatory and harmful anti-homosexuality law, that is already having a negative impact on Ugandans,” said the U. N. High Commissioner for Human Rights press release.
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