(Nairobi) – Cameroonian security forces have arbitrarily arrested, beaten, or
threatened at least 24 people, including a 17-year-old boy, for alleged
consensual same-sex conduct or gender nonconformity, since February 2021,
Human Rights Watch said today. At least one of them was forced to undergo an
HIV test and anal examination.
Based on Human Rights Watch’s monitoring and discussions with Cameroonian
nongovernmental organizations, the recent accounts of abuse documented
here seem to be part of an overall uptick in police action against
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Cameroon. Sexual
relations between people of the same sex are criminalized in Cameroon and
punished with up to five years in prison.
“These recent arrests and abuses raise serious concerns about a new
upsurge in anti-LGBT persecution in Cameroon,” said Neela Ghoshal, associate LGBT rights director at Human Rights Watch. “The law
criminalizing same-sex conduct puts LGBT people at a heightened risk of
being mistreated, tortured, and assaulted without any consequences for the
abusers.”
Between February 17 and April 8, Human Rights Watch interviewed by
telephone 18 people, including 5 who had been detained, 3 lawyers, and 10
members of Cameroonian LGBT nongovernmental organizations. Human Rights
Watch also reviewed reports by Cameroonian and international LGBT
organizations, court documents, police reports, and medical records.
Human Rights Watch shared its findings with the justice minister, Laurent
Esso; the state secretary at the Defense Ministry in charge of the
national gendarmerie, Yves Landry Etoga; and the delegate general for
national security, Martin Mbarga Nguele, in a March 25 letter, requesting
answers to specific questions. Cameroonian officials have yet to respond.
On February 24, police officers raided the office of Colibri, an
organization that provides HIV prevention and treatment services, in
Bafoussam, West Region, and arrested 13 people on homosexuality charges,
including 7 Colibri staff. The police released all 13 people on February
26 and 27. Three of those arrested said that police beat at least three
Colibri staff members at the police station and that the police threatened
and verbally assaulted all those arrested. They also said that the police
interrogated them without the presence of a lawyer and forced them to sign
statements they were not allowed to read.
One of them, a 22-year-old transgender woman, said: “Police told us we are
devils, not humans, not normal. They beat a trans woman in the face,
slapped her twice in front of me.”
Police also forced one of the 13 arrested, a 26-year-old transgender
woman, to undergo an HIV test and anal examination at a health center in
Bafoussam on February 25. She told Human Rights Watch: “The doctor was
embarrassed but said he had to do the examination because the prosecutor
needed it. He carried out the examination. I had to bend over. The doctor
wore gloves and put in his finger. It was the most humiliating thing I’ve
ever experienced.”
What this transgender woman experienced is not an isolated case. Human
Rights Watch has previously documented that prosecutors in Cameroon have introduced medical reports based
on forced anal exams into court, contributing to convictions of
individuals charged with consensual homosexual conduct.
Human Rights Watch documented two additional arrests in 2021 and one mass
arrest in 2020. In Bertoua, on February 14, gendarmes arrested 12 youth,
including at least 1 teenager, on homosexuality charges and subjected them
to ill-treatment before releasing them the same day. On February
8, gendarmes arbitrarily arrested two transgender women in Douala,
targeting them in the street on the basis of their gender expression.
Prosecutors charged them with homosexual conduct, lack of identity cards,
and public indecency.
“It is not illegal to be homosexual or transgender,” said Cameroonian
lawyer Alice Nkom. “According to Cameroonian law, it is the act which is
the crime. So, this is a blatant human rights violation. They should be
released immediately.”
In May 2020, police arrested 53 people, most of them LGBT, at a gathering
hosted by an HIV organization in a hotel in Bafoussam and charged them
with “homosexuality” related offenses. At least 6, including 3 teenagers
ages 15 to 17, were subjected to forced anal examinations and HIV tests.
The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights guarantees the right to
equal protection before the law and nondiscrimination. The African
Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the body charged with monitoring
states parties’ compliance with the African Charter, has said that equal
protection extends to sexual orientation. It has also stated that the
principle of nondiscrimination, including on the grounds of sexual
orientation, is the foundation for the enjoyment of all human rights. The
commission has called for African governments to end all forms of violence
and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity
and to bring the abusers to justice.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which
Cameroon is a state party, provides for equal protection,
nondiscrimination, and the right to privacy. On this basis, the United
Nations Human Rights Committee has ruled that the criminalization of
consensual same-sex conduct between adults violates the ICCPR.
Forced anal exams constitute a form of cruel, inhuman, and degrading
treatment that can, in some cases, rise to the level of torture. In
November 2013, Dr. Guy Sandjon, president of the National Medical Council
of Cameroon, told Human Rights Watch that Cameroonian doctors should not conduct the
exams, as they violate medical ethics, and that the authorities should not
order them. Involuntary HIV and sexually transmitted infection tests
constitute a violation of the right to bodily integrity and privacy,
protected under the ICCPR, and the right to health under the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
“The Cameroonian government has an obligation to uphold the rights of
everyone in Cameroon, regardless of their real or perceived sexual
orientation and gender identity,” Ghoshal said. “The authorities should
immediately end arbitrary arrests on the basis of sexual identity and
forced anal examinations and should take swift steps to repeal the law
criminalizing consensual same-sex relations.”
For more details about the recent human rights abuses against LGBT people
and recommendations for Cameroonian authorities, please see below.
Bafoussam, West Region, May 2020
On May 16, 2020, police arrested 53 people, the majority of whom were LGBT, including at least 6
teenagers ages 15 to 17, in a hotel in Bafoussam during a gathering
organized by the HIV association, Colibri. They were charged with
“homosexuality,” pimping, and complicity in pimping, and were held at the
judicial police station. Ten were released on May 17, and the rest on May
21.
Two of those arrested and the lawyer who represented them said that the
police beat, humiliated, and threatened many of those arrested, held all
of them in a tiny cell, and deprived some of the HIV treatment they
needed. One of the men arrested said:
They [police officers] stormed the hotel; they took everyone by force.
They forced some of us to undress. They beat a trans woman in front of me,
they slapped her twice in the face and ordered her to take off her clothes
in front of everyone. They also seized medicine, including
antiretrovirals, thermometers, and HIV tests. Then they brought us to the
police station and threw us in a very small cell where we could barely
breathe. Men, women, children, everyone in the same cell. Police also
deprived those who were HIV positive of their life-saving treatment and
refused to let any medicine into the cell. It was tough. One year on, they
are yet to give us back what they took, like medicine and HIV kits. Also,
I am yet to recover from the trauma this incident has caused me.
One of those arrested, a transgender woman, said that on May 18, police
forced her to undergo an HIV test and anal examination at the regional
hospital in Bafoussam without her consent. She said 5 other LGBT people,
including 3 of the teenagers, experienced the same treatment. She
said:
The doctor did not want to do the exams because he said he needed my
consent, but the police officer insisted and said they needed the exams to
provide proof of our sexual orientation for the prosecution. So, the
doctor went ahead. I had to bend. I was afraid. I was in shock. I could
not believe that a medical professional, who is supposed to be bound by
the highest ethical standards, would do this to me. It is such an
intrusive, invasive practice.
Human Rights Watch reviewed medical records indicating that the anal
examinations and HIV tests were carried out by a doctor at the orders of the
regional commissioner of the judicial police. The records confirm that the
six people were subjected to digital penetration, a form of sexual assault
when conducted by force without consent.
Bertoua, East Region, February 2021
On February 14, gendarmes arrested 12 youth, including a 17-year-old boy,
in a restaurant in Bertoua on homosexuality-related charges. Human Rights
Watch spoke to a 21-year-old woman, who was among those arrested, who said
that gendarmes beat, threatened, and verbally assaulted her and the others
at the gendarmerie station:
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They ordered us to lay on the ground on our stomachs with our legs bent.
A gendarme would put a foot on your back so that you could not move, while
another gendarme would hit you on the soles of your feet. That’s how I was
beaten up. Everyone was beaten like that. Gendarmes wanted us to confess
we were homosexuals. They insulted and threatened us. They said: “You are
those destroying our country, we should kill you.”
All of those arrested were released the same day without charge.
A woman working for a local human rights group that provided legal and
other assistance to those arrested told Human Rights Watch that some of
the youth needed medical care upon their release because of the beatings.
Douala, Littoral Region, February 2021
Gendarmes arrested Njeuken Loic (known as “Shakiro”) and Mouthe Roland
(known as “Patricia”), two transgender women, in Douala on February 8.
They were charged with homosexuality-related offenses, lack of identity
cards, and public indecency, and taken to a gendarmerie brigade in
Nkoulouloun neighborhood, where they spent the night. The next day, a
court ordered them to be placed in pretrial detention. They were
transferred the following day to the New Bell prison in Douala, where they
remain. Their trial is ongoing before the Bonajo Court of First Instance in Douala.
Two of their lawyers and three LGBT rights activists who visited them in
prison said that gendarmes interrogated Shakiro and Patricia at the
gendarmerie brigade without the presence of their lawyers, forced them to
sign statements they were not allowed to read, beat them, and threatened
them. A member of a Cameroonian LGBT organization based in Douala said:
I visited Shakiro and Patricia several times in prison. They told me that
they were beaten and threatened with death at the gendarmerie station.
They said gendarmes twisted their hands behind their backs for almost 30
minutes and hit them with their boots, including on their backs. Gendarmes
accused them of being homosexuals and called them “dirty faggots.”
LGBT rights activists and lawyers also said that detainees and prison
guards at New Bell prison beat, threatened, and verbally assaulted Shakiro
and Patricia repeatedly. An LGBT activist who visited them in prison
said:
Their detention conditions are extremely poor. They are constantly
insulted by prison guards and other inmates because of their sexual
orientation. They were chained up upon arrival at New Bell prison and
beaten by prison guards. They are being held with many men in small cells.
Shakiro is in a cell with about 70 men, while Patricia in another cell
with about 50 men. Holding them with men is problematic, they would prefer
to stay with women. They told me inmates always verbally assault them,
saying horrible things like they are not supposed to exist.
On March 24, the Bonajo Court of First Instance in Douala denied their bail
application, claiming that section 301 of the Cameroonian criminal procedure
code, on which Shakiro and Patricia’s lawyers have based their defense, is
not applicable. Section 301 states that, “Where a case is not ready for
hearing, the court shall adjourn it to its very next sitting and may order
the release of the accused on bail, with or without sureties.”
The next hearing in their case is scheduled for April 26.
Recommendations
Human Rights Watch urges Cameroon’s authorities to take the following
steps:
· The delegate general for national security and the secretary of
state for defense in charge of the gendarmerie should issue written orders
to all police and gendarmes to immediately stop arbitrarily arresting people
based on their perceived or actual sexual orientation, gender nonconformity,
or alleged consensual same-sex conduct.
· The judiciary should immediately release and dismiss charges against
Shakiro and Patricia and others charged on the basis of perceived or actual
sexual orientation, gender nonconformity, or alleged consensual same-sex
conduct.
· Parliament should initiate a repeal of article 347 bis of the Cameroonian
Penal code, which punishes consensual same-sex sexual relations with up to
five years in prison.
· The justice minister should make absolutely clear, in particular to all
law enforcement, prosecuting and judicial authorities, that Cameroonian law
does not make it a crime or offense to be a lesbian, gay, bisexual or
transgender person, or to dress in a way that is perceived as gender
nonconforming, and that any official purporting to exercise authority to
detain, charge, or prosecute an LGBT person on the basis of their actual or
perceived sexual orientation or gender nonconformity, or threatening to do
so, is acting without a lawful basis and shall be held to account for abuse
of power.
· The National Human Rights Commission should investigate allegations of
ill-treatment of detainees on the grounds of real or perceived sexual
orientation or gender identity.
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