Behind the Mask | The Voice of Africa's LGBTI Community

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay has publically condemned the scourge of corrective rapes in South Africa saying they are “a serious crime that should never be tolerated nor condoned.”

In an article published on June 14, by The Star newspaper in South Africa, Pillay asserted that South Africa had “given the world some powerful ideas, among them the concept of the Rainbow Nation, where diversity is a source of strength and everyone is entitled to equal rights and respect.”

She added, “However it is saddening that the country reborn under Nelson Mandela’s watchful eye should now be the setting for corrective rape, a far more sinister phenomenon that undermines everything the Rainbow Nation stands for.”

Pillay wrote, “As High Commissioner, I must stay true to universal standards of human rights and human dignity, which are overriding. In speaking up for the rights of those who are LGBTI, we are not calling for the recognition of new rights or trying to extend human rights into new territory, we are simply reinforcing what the UN human rights treaty bodies and human rights rapporteurs have confirmed repeatedly.”

Reports state that in South Africa, more than 30 lesbians have been killed in corrective rape cases since 1998, yet only one case has resulted in a conviction.

Meanwhile on June 17, 2011, the first ever UN resolution on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity was passed by the UN. The resolution is meant to bring specific focus to human rights violations based on sexual orientation and gender identity and was sponsored by South Africa.

Lauding the resolution, South African gay rights group, the Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (LGEP) said in a statement, that it welcomes the role played by South African government at the United Nation’s Human Rights Council against human rights violations on sexual orientation and gender identity, as the resolution lays a strong foundation for South Africa to advance and promote the content of the resolution in the African Union and the Southern African Development Community”.

Of the 23 states which endorsed the resolution, only one African country, Mauritius, supported it. Homosexuality is criminal in most African countries.

In her newspaper article, Pillay also highlighted that while corrective rape has become associated with South Africa, where most documented cases have taken place, the problem is not restricted to any one country as this kind of rape is part of a wider pattern of sexual violence that tragically affects women across South Africa and elsewhere.

She wrote, “Cases of corrective rape have recently been reported in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Jamaica, and, more generally, violence against individuals perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender is a reality in all parts of the world, with some particularly horrific incidents reported recently in the US, the UK, Honduras and Brazil.”

Earlier this year Ndumie Funda of Luleki Sizwe, a Cape Town based anti-rape NGO started a campaign petitioning the South African Government to have corrective rape declared a hate crime and combated. Following Luleki Sizwe’s efforts, the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development revealed on May 4, that a national task team has been set up to tackle homophobic attacks.

The latest development is that, interim task team members will be announced to the public and to the Department of Justice on June 29. This will then be followed by the interim task team meeting on July 14 to finalise a plan of action, terms of reference for the task team, financial and human and resources, planning a national conference to discuss hate crimes as well as electing a permanent task team.

In her article Pillay pointed out, “Healthy societies cannot approve of violence inflicted on other human beings for any reason.

“South Africans should need no convincing of this, it was after all the idea on which this country was renewed and which is today embedded in the constitution. South Africa’s challenge is to be true to its ideals and to make real the promise of the post-apartheid era: a rainbow nation where we are all free and equal and can live comfortably with those who are different. It is a challenge the rest of the world would do well to take up.”

Simangele Mzizi (Junior Reporter)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Breaking News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.