Cameroon

Cameroonian Community Debates Decriminalization of Homosexuality Amid International Pressure

As the international community pressures the government of Cameroon to decriminalize homosexuality, parliament members say they are torn between acquiescing to international demands and respecting the conservative values of many of their constituents.

Cameroonian Community Debates Decriminalization of Homosexuality Amid International Pressure

DOUALA, CAMEROON – With his head down and eyes fixed as if in profound meditation, Monsignor Paul Nyaga says he understands that Cameroon’s leadership faces a difficult choice of whether to amend its laws that criminalize homosexuality.

But Nyaga, the rector of the Institut Universitaire Catholique Saint-Jérôme Douala in Douala, a city in western Cameroon, says he fears that Cameroonian society will become morally broken if the government decriminalizes same-sex relations.

“This thing is not an easy thing because we’re talking about values,” he says. “This type of propaganda bringing people to behave against nature, to me, is [a] sign of a society which is really falling apart.”

The international community is pressuring the government to decriminalize homosexuality, but this would violate Cameroon’s culture, he says.

“For the government to say today that homosexuality is a right is something difficult because the government is a representation of the people,” he says. “And they cannot come and change overnight what the people have been for centuries.”

Human Rights Watch, an international organization, published a report in March 2013 titled “Guilty by Association: Human Rights Violations in the Enforcement of Cameroon’s Anti-Homosexuality Law” that condemns Cameroonian law enforcement’s treatment of gay men and lesbians.

But Nyaga fears that the report is part of an international agenda of foreign governments and organizations to promote homosexuality and to impose their values on other countries, he says.

If Cameroon’s government decriminalizes homosexuality, the people will need to stay true to their own stances on same-sex relationships, he says.

“People will gain their sovereignty and come back to reason,” he says with a sigh. “It is possible. There’s nothing impossible with God.”

Foreign governments and human rights advocates urge Cameroon to honor its place in the international community by decriminalizing same-sex relations. But local religious and community leaders respond that homosexuality has no place in Cameroonian culture. Under conflicting pressures, state officials in Cameroon say they must carefully consider the criminal status of homosexuality before deciding whether to amend it.

“Sexual relations with a person of the same sex” is a criminal offense in Cameroon, according to Article 347 bis of the country’s penal code. The penalty is a prison term of up to five years and a fine ranging from 20,000 Central African francs ($40) to 200,000 francs ($400).

“Cameroon prosecutes people for consensual same-sex conduct more aggressively than almost any country in the world,” according to the 2013 Human Rights Watch report.

Prosecutors in Cameroon charged at least 28 people with the crime of homosexuality during the three years leading up to the report. It also states that law enforcement officers torture, imprison and intimidate gay residents.

International bodies, foreign governments and human rights advocates at home and abroad urge the government to decriminalize homosexuality.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights scrutinized Cameroon’s human rights record during its Universal Periodic Review of the country in April 2013. Representatives of six countries – Brazil, Canada, France, Luxembourg, Mexico and Argentina – recommended that Cameroon’s government reform or repeal laws criminalizing homosexuality, according to the U.N. online database of recommendations by country. But representatives from Cameroon rejected each of these recommendations.

The country’s penal code violates the human rights of gays and lesbians, according to a January 2013 report by human rights advocacy group Amnesty International titled “Republic of Cameroon: Make Human Rights a Reality.” Cameroon has ratified multiple international treaties that require states to investigate allegations of human rights violations and bring perpetrators to justice, but it has failed to meet these obligations.

Not all protests originate from foreign governments or international human rights organizations. Cameroonian activists also condemn the government’s criminalization of homosexuality.

Cameroon must decriminalize homosexuality on the basis of its membership in the international community, says Alice Nkom, a human rights lawyer in Cameroon and president of the Association for the Defense of Gays and Lesbians, a local advocacy organization.

Cameroon’s government appears to believe that the country exists outside of human rights obligations, she says.

“They want to choose the day or the year they will respect their engagement vis-à-vis the human community,” she says.

Religion and traditional culture have no place in legal discussions, she says. The government must ignore protests from religious representatives during the lawmaking process.

“You cannot impose your religion to me because nobody forces you to choose it,” she says. “I even chose not to have a religion.”

But many Cameroonians say that their religion and traditions forbid homosexuality and they fear that decriminalization will infringe on their values.

Because Cameroon’s culture does not support homosexuality, the state does not need to view homosexuality as a human right, Nyaga says. Cameroonians have the right to do things differently from the rest of the world.

Cameroonians have the right to make laws that reflect the country’s religion and culture, says Nico Halle, a lawyer in Douala.

Conservative Christian beliefs influence many Cameroonians’ condemnation of homosexuality. Approximately 80 percent of Cameroonians polled in 2010 for a study by the Pew Research Center identified themselves as Christian.

“The most celebrated human rights provider is God himself,” Halle says. “God has given us many human rights, but homosexuality is not one of them.”

With human rights come responsibilities and obligations, he says.

“Human rights are not a blank check,” he says. “It’s not chaos. It’s not irresponsibility or disorder.”

Nyaga is suspicious of the intentions of foreign governments and organizations promoting the decriminalization of homosexuality in Cameroon.

The Human Rights Watch report is an example of homosexual propaganda, Nyaga says. Advocacy organizations know that Cameroon depends on foreign aid, and these organizations threaten Cameroon to accept foreign values or risk losing aid.

“They want to bring our government to their knees,” he says. “There’s a lot of money in this thing. These people have powerful lobbies.”

These organizations own banks and mass communication institutes, he says. They convince millions of people to believe their lies with these resources.

Amid international pressure and local debate, Cameroonian lawmakers are evaluating the issue carefully.

In speeches, government officials have hinted that Cameroon may change its laws regarding homosexuality. But members of the National Assembly, Cameroon’s parliament, report that they must consider all sides before they take action. 

President Paul Biya told journalists at a January 2013 press conference that Cameroonians were changing their minds regarding homosexuality, according to the Human Rights Watch report.

Meanwhile, human rights organizations are lobbying parliament to decriminalize homosexuality, says Edward Nkembeng, a member of the National Assembly from Douala. Members of parliament receive reports, letters and petitions from organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

But the people of Cameroon rely on their elected officials to speak for them, he says. Officials must carefully weigh their constituents’ views against the international community’s requests. Amending the penal code could have serious cultural consequences.

“I think it shall be a creation of a new mentality because if some Cameroonians today engage in such a practice, it’s not common,” Nkembeng says. “The average Cameroonian would not submit to this kind of thing.”

People should be free to live however they would like, he says. But Cameroonian attitudes differ greatly from Western attitudes regarding homosexuality.

Currently, Cameroonians consider anyone who speaks favorably about homosexuality to be a fool, he says.

The National Assembly does not currently have a motion to amend the country’s penal code, Nkembeng says. But Biya’s remarks indicate that an amendment is possible because the president introduces most legislation, and his party is the majority party.

“There shall always be two camps, but the majority shall win the vote if the president tables a bill on this issue,” he says. “The majority is the ruling party. That is why if he presents a bill at the National Assembly, whatever objections the opposition has, the bill still goes through.”

But Halle says that Biya was not endorsing homosexuality when he said during his speech that Cameroonians’ minds were changing.

“I don’t think the head of state would like such [a] hideous, abominable act to be endorsed,” he says. “I don’t think so.” 

If the government decriminalizes homosexuality, it will disappoint the Christian community, Nyaga says. But Christians will not fight the government’s decision.

“The church has no power to fight the government,” he says. “Christians may march, but they don’t have weapons, and they’re not Christians to carry weapons and fight. They are Christians to sow seeds of love.”

The Roman Catholic Church knows where the truth stands, and it will use only prayers and evangelism as weapons, he says.

Meanwhile, Nkom urges the government to act quickly in decriminalizing homosexuality. Cameroon cannot waste time in changing its penal code, she says.

“This is a battle we cannot lose,” she says. “It’s just a question of time. We’re on the good side of history because we’re fighting for humanity. Humanity will always win against intolerance, discrimination, extremism.”