Mali Passes Law to Jail Gay People
"We all live in constant fear, now more than ever," a gay Malian told the organization Human Rights Watch.
Mali is on the brink of passing a law that would jail people for engaging in same-sex relations, condoning same-sex relationships, or “promoting” homosexuality.
The country’s ruling National Transitional Council, on October 31, approved the proposed law by a vote of 131-1. The measure must next be approved by the country’s military leaders before taking effect.
Details of punishments under the new penal code have not yet been announced.
“There are now provisions prohibiting homosexuality in Mali,” Mamadou Kassogue, Mali’s Minister of Justice and Human Rights, said following the vote. “Anyone engaging in this practice or promoting or condoning it will be prosecuted.”
Kassogue previously railed against the lack of a law criminalizing homosexuality two years ago, calling homosexuality “an unnatural relationship.”
At the same time, Kassogue signed a United Nations pledge last December promising that Mali would promote and protect human rights. While LGBTQ rights were not specifically mentioned, the pledge stated that vital human rights include access to education, employment, and health care, as well as the ability to be paid fairly, voting rights, the right to free speech, the right to privacy, and mutual respect.
The LGBTQ community faces much hostility in Mali, a predominantly Islamic African country where homosexuality is viewed as a Western import.
At the same time, Sharia law, or Muslim religious law, does not tolerate same-sex relations, and people can face extrajudicial punishments ranging from subjection to conversion therapy and amputation to flogging to death.
That means that most LGBTQ Malians are forced to remain closeted or do LGBTQ-specific work under a veil of secrecy. Additionally, law enforcement officials may sometimes choose to prosecute known LGBTQ activists under statutes barring acts of “public indecency.”
The global rights organization Human Rights Watch noted in a recent report that, since 2021, when the ruling military junta took control of the nation, the Malian government has cracked down on media and political opposition groups. The junta has also sought to justify the prosecution of LGBTQ individuals and same-sex relations as defending “traditional and moral values.”
Human Rights Watch reported there has been a recent increase in arbitrary arrests and detention, as well as physical assaults, based on appearance or gender expression. One LGBTQ rights activist told Human Rights Watch, “We all live in constant fear, now more than ever.”
Human Rights Watch has urged the ruling junta to suspend the law, arguing that its provisions violate Mali’s obligations under international human rights laws, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which condemns anti-LGBTQ violence and discrimination.
Unfortunately, Mali is not the only African nation that has moved recently to further restrict the rights or visibility of LGBTQ individuals. In neighboring Burkina Faso, lawmakers are slated to pass a nearly identical anti-LGBTQ law.
At least 30 African nations criminalize same-sex behavior, either based on colonial-era anti-sodomy laws imposed by European nations, or through more recent crackdowns. In Uganda, lawmakers passed the infamous “Anti-Homosexuality Act,” which imposes the death penalty for some forms of same-sex intimacy or pro-LGBTQ advocacy.
At the same time, several African countries have decriminalized homosexuality in the last decade, including Gabon, Mauritius, Angola, Lesotho, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Botswana, and Mozambique. In June, Namibia’s High Court struck down the country’s law banning same-sex relations.
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