Its hard to believe that I’ve been in Accra for almost a month now. I’m really enjoying my time here and my volunteer placement so far. I’m volunteering with a human rights organization, which seeks to provide services to and education for the sexual minority of Ghana, consisting of the gay and transgender communities as well as sex workers.
Its been a very eye opening working with these marginalized communities in a country where homosexuality is against the law. Many of the workshops and group discussions we attend/run are done so in secret in order to ensure the safety of the participants as well as the staff. We don’t even have a sign outside advertising the office to make sure security is at its highest.
One of my tasks is to create a newsletter that will go out to these marginalized communities, but also to the general public, as the newsletter focuses on different human rights abuses in addition to the abuses faced by the LGBT community. One of the stories that is featured in the newsletter is about a phenomenon occurring in South Africa called “corrective rape”.
Millicent Gaika was bound, strangled, tortured and raped for 5 hours by a man claiming he was curing her of her lesbianism. “Corrective rape” is a term used to describe when a man, or group of men, target and rape a lesbian with the aim of “turning” her straight. Sadly, this heinous act is not even considered a hate crime.
Called the rainbow nation, South Africa is revered globally for its efforts to constitutionally protect against discrimination, post apartheid. Interestingly, it was the first country to constitutionally protect citizens from discrimination based on sexuality, yet no one in South Africa has been convicted of corrective rape, while a local organization, Luleki Sizwe has recorded more than one corrective rape a day.
Hate crimes promote fear and insecurity among minority communities. Victims of hate crimes are usually doubly victimized, as they must deal with the attack itself, but also realize it is an attack inherent to the victim’s identity. The victims of corrective rape in South Africa are typically black, poor, lesbian women. South Africa’s Justice Minister has said that motive for rape is irrelevant.
South Africa is considered the rape capital of the world and a girl born in South Africa today has a one in three chance of finishing school, and a one in two chance of being raped. One quarter of South African girls are raped before their 16th birthday. It is believed that masculine entitlement, poverty, cramped settlements, unemployed and disenfranchised men, dismal police response and lax sentencing are the root causes. 62% of boys over 11 believe that forcing someone to have sex is not an act of violence. A survey by the South Africa Medical Research Council found that 1 in 4 men admit to raping and one third of men believe girls enjoy rape.
South Africa has the highest number of people infected with HIV in the world, around 5.7 million people. Given this high number and having the largest number of rapes reported, there is considerable concern about the links between these two problems, as HIV can obviously be transmitted in the course of the rape and this compounds the human rights violation of the rape.
Last week, David Kato, a Ugandan activist for gay rights, was beat to death in his home. A few months ago, a newspaper in Uganda published photos of people believed to be gay in Uganda under a banner urging “Hang Them”. Supporters and friends of Kato’s indicate they believe his death is a direct result of a visit by US Evangelicals in 2009. This visit by American evangelicals held rallies and workshops in Uganda on how to turn gay people straight.
Its been painfully obvious that the rights of the LGBT community should be at the forefront of any discussions related to human rights, yet, Human Rights Day in December, marked the first time the UN Secretary General discussed sexual rights within the framework of general human rights.
Let’s end this tide of hatred and discrimination. When will enough be enough?
For more information, please visit:
To sign a petition encouraging the South African government to make corrective rape a hate crime, visit:
www.avaaz.org
To visit the blog of Luleki Sizwe, the organization working to advocate for victims of corrective rape:
lulekisizwe.wordpress.com
To visit a petition launched on Change.org visit:
http://humanrights.change.org/petitions/view/south_africa_declare_corrective_rape_a_hate-crime
“South Africa’s Shame: The Rise of Child Rape” (The Independent):
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/south-africas-shame-the-rise-of-child-rape-1974578.html
“We have a major problem in South Africa” (The Guardian):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/nov/18/south-africa-murder-rape
“Preventing Rape and Violence in South Africa” (South Africa Medical Research Council):
http://www.mrc.ac.za/gender/prev_rapedd041209.pdf
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