Are Laws Banning Homosexuality Like Apartheid?

by Michael Jones · 2009-01-05 09:07:00 UTC
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Navi PillayArchbishop Desmond Tutu once said about Apartheid, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."  Does the same philosophy apply when it comes to LGBT rights?

Navi Pillay may say yes.  She's the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and she sees anti-gay violence and laws criminalizing homosexuality to be on par with the deadly and destructive legacy of Apartheid.  In an historic address before the UN, Pillay condemned global criminalization of homosexuality, and called out the countries around the world that continue to imprison, abuse and murder LGBT citizens.

There remain too many countries which continue to criminalize sexual relations between consenting adults of the same sex in defiance of established human rights law.  Ironically many of these laws, like apartheid laws that criminalised sexual relations between consenting adults of different races, are relics of the colonial era and are increasingly becoming recognised as anachronistic and as inconsistent both with international law and with traditional values of dignity, inclusion and respect for all.

Part of Pillay's statement bears repeating: LGBT rights are part and parcel  to established human rights law.

At the end of 2009, the UN put forth its first statement ever on the issue of LGBT rights.  More than 65 countries signed a statement calling for a worldwide end to criminalizing homosexuality.  Sadly, a number of states refused to sign the statement, including the U.S. and the Vatican, and currently there are more than six dozen countries that criminalize sexual relations between consenting adults of the same-sex.  But that still doesn't curb the historic passage of the UN statement, nor does it circumvent the importance of Navi Pillay's comments on the issue of global LGBT rights.  As Pillay said, "Those who are lesbian, gay or bisexual, those who are transgender, transsexual or intersex, are full and equal members of the human family, and are entitled to be treated as such."

Comparisons to Apartheid are always a sticky issue (just ask Jimmy Carter).  But on this issue, Navi Pillay seems right.  Laws targeting LGBT people with imprisonment, fines, abuse and death sentences violate the values of dignity and respect for all - the very tenets of what the United Nations is about.

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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