30,000 Call for Release of Two Gay Cameroon Men Jailed for Five Years for "Crime" of Being Gay

by Michael Jones · 2011-12-07 19:54:00 UTC
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More than 30,000 people have joined a campaign on Change.org calling on the government of Cameroon to release two men sentenced to five years in prison for the “crime” of being gay.

The campaign was launched as the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced sweeping efforts to confront global anti-LGBT human rights abuses.  Before a speech in Geneva on Tuesday, Secretary Clinton met with human rights activists from Cameroon to discuss how the U.S. can promote the rights of LGBT residents in Cameroon, where ten people have been detained or arrested by police for being gay in the last year.

The Association for the Defense of Homosexuals (ADEFHO), a grassroots Cameroon LGBT group, started the petition on Change.org after a judge sentenced 19-year-old Jonas and 20-year-old Franky to five years in prison for violating Cameroon’s laws against homosexuality, which criminalize same-gender sexual conduct. According to ADEFHO, Franky and Jonas never engaged in any sexual conduct but were merely walking from a bar when they were stopped by police and detained.

“Franky and Jonas should have never been condemned,” said Stéphane Koche of ADEFHO. “If Cameroon had a transparent and fair judiciary system, and if the President and Minister of Justice valued the human rights of all Cameroonians, Franky and Jonas would be free men today.”

According to ADEFHO, the five-year prison term handed down by the judge is the harshest penalty allowed under Cameroonian law and has caused outcry from numerous international human rights groups. ADEFHO’s Change.org campaign calling for Franky and Jonas’s release follows a similar effort last year in Malawi, where international pressure persuaded Malawi’s president to pardon two men who were sentenced to 14 years in prison for having a same-sex wedding.

“It’s truly remarkable to see how organizations like ADEFHO are building international support to fight back against laws that criminalize LGBT people,” said Change.org Senior Organizer Michael Jones. “In the face of enormous personal risk, ADEFHO has managed to recruit more than 30,000 people to call for the release of these two men in Cameroon, sending a message to the President and Minister of Justice that the world is watching.”

To add your signature to ADEFHO's campaign, please click here. And below you'll find video of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's LGBT address in Geneva.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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