Two weeks ago I was in Johannesburg as a member of the UK delegation to the annual Commonwealth conference. The Commonwealth nations have been successful in obtaining change. All 54 countries have created a document, the Commonwealth Charter, which commits all the countries to the universal declaration of human rights and opposes all forms of discrimination ‘whether rooted in gender, race, colour, creed, political belief or other grounds’ and that those rights are ‘universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated – and that they cannot be implemented selectively.
This pledge is laudable, but the reality is rather different – for women, for LGBTI people, on the death penalty, and in particular countries, like Sri Lanka
In Cameroon an estimated 38 per cent of girls are currently missing from secondary education, which is simply unacceptable. In the Chamber of Deputies of the Rwandan parliament, 56 per cent of representatives are women; I am ashamed to admit that only 23 per cent of MPs in the House of Commons are women, placing us 65th in the Inter-Parliamentary Union. We clearly have a lot to learn about women’s representation! But throughout the Commonwealth, women are in need of a voice. To make the necessary changes, we need better representation of women in our governments. That change would ensure the rights of women can no longer be ignored; representation is key to creating positive changes to many of the current issues that face women across the Commonwealth.
On the death penalty, the Commonwealth Charter commits member nations to the universal declaration of human rights, and Article 3 enshrines the right to life. The death penalty clearly and fundamentally undermines that right. Worldwide, great progress has been made on abolishing the death penalty but Commonwealth countries including many of our ‘dream’ holiday destinations such as; the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, St Lucia, and the Maldives still support the death penalty.
In August 2012, nine people were executed in Gambia, with President Jammeh calling for all death sentences to be carried out ‘to the letter’ by mid-September. Those executions were in sharp contrast to the trend in west Africa towards ending the use of the death penalty. Meanwhile, we must also recognise that individuals continue to be sentenced to death, or executed, for crimes not involving intentional killing – meaning the punishment does not meet the threshold of ‘the most serious crimes’, as prescribed by Article 6 of the international covenant on civil and political rights, to which all Commonwealth countries are committed by our charter. For example, people are condemned to death for blasphemy in Pakistan, for forms of aggravated robbery in Kenya and Zambia and for drug-related offences in Malaysia and Singapore. That is simply not acceptable under current international law. The death penalty must be repealed in all 36 Commonwealth countries that retain it.
When in Johannesburg I visited the Apartheid Museum, where it struck me forcefully, that, though many of the battles for racial equality had been won, segregation between homosexuals and heterosexuals continues across Africa. In Cameroon, Alice Nkom and Michel Togue, who are defence lawyers for LGBTI people, have received telephone calls and text messages on a daily basis from anonymous people who threaten them and their families with death. In South Africa, 24-year-old Noxolo Nogwaza was brutally murdered in KwaThema township. The police responsible for the investigation into her murder have so far made no progress and no suspects have been arrested.
The Commonwealth charter does not explicitly mention the protection of LGBTI people. I understand why that compromise position was taken, but I believe it is a grave mistake, as 41 Commonwealth countries currently criminalise homosexuality. Those laws are often a historical relic of British colonial rule that continues to stigmatise and marginalise the LGBTI community across the Commonwealth. The charter needs to name LGBTI as one of the categories of potential discrimination. It needs to call for homosexuality to be legalised across the Commonwealth to ensure that that persecution stops.
Finally: Sri Lanka. The horrific civil war that waged for 26 years in Sri Lanka ended in 2009. There were concerns about human rights abuses and war crimes, committed by both the Sri Lankan government and the ‘Tamil Tigers’. To examine events during the period from 2002 to May 2009, President Mahinda Rajapaksa established the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, which was welcomed by many civilians. Implementing the commission’s recommendations, however, has been both slow and selective. Post-2009, grave concerns still exist about military engagement in civilian activities in the north, including sexual abuse, the situation of detainees from the war, the impact of forcible disappearances, impunity, hatred and violence against religious minorities, the intimidation and harassment of human rights defenders, the weakening of democracy, growing authoritarianism, the erosion of the rule of law and the abduction and murder of journalists.
Last month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, raised strong concerns over the continual and increasingly authoritarian direction in the country. The international community, and the Commonwealth community in particular, should put pressure on President Rajapaksa to force him to show that there is a strategic plan to implement all the LLRC report before Sri Lanka’s ministers consider attending the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in November.
David Cameron and other senior ministers need to support the position of the Canadian prime minister in refraining from attending the heads of government meeting. While I understand the argument that you need to be at the table to effect change, I also believe that the atrocities are so extreme that a moral position needs to be taken if human rights are ever going to be seriously defended. The need for serious improvements on this and many other issues makes the Commonwealth a crucial forum to ensure these are achieved.
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Photo: Tracy Apps