Amnesty International urges Nigeria to halt anti-gay bill - Amnesty International (AI) has asked the Nigerian authorities to scrap the anti-gay bill that, if passed into law, would 'attack basic rights and criminalize relationships between people of the same gender'. AI made the call in a statement issued Wednesday, a day after Nigeria's upper legislative chamber, the Senate, passed a bill that seeks to outlaw same sex marriage, prescribes a 14-year jail for couples that engage in such marriages and 10-year jail for those who witness or abet same-sex marriage.

The bill will still have to be passed by the lower House of Representative and be harmonised before it can be sent to the for his assent.

Amnesty said by broadly defining “same-sex marriage” as including all same-sex relationships, and targeting people who “witness”, “aid” or “abet” such relationships, the bill threatens the human rights of a large number of people. 

“Nigeria’s House of Representatives should show leadership and uphold the rights of all in Nigeria by rejecting this reprehensible bill,” the statement quoted Erwin van der Borght, Director of Amnesty International's Africa Programme, as saying.

“If passed, this measure would target people on the basis of their identity, not merely their behaviour, and put a wide range of people at risk of criminal sanctions for exercising basic rights and opposing discrimination based purely on a person’s actual or presumed sexual orientation or gender identity,” he said.

AI said the bill would place a wide range of people at risk of criminal sanctions, including human rights defenders and anyone else – including friends, families and colleagues – who stands up for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people in Nigeria.

Individuals could face imprisonment based on nothing more than their actual or assumed sexual orientation or gender identity, or stemming from allegations about their relationship status or consensual sexual conduct, it said

AI also raised concerns that the bill would contravene Nigeria’s efforts to prevent HIV transmission by driving people already suffering stigma for their identity or consensual sexual behaviour still further underground.

Pana 30/11/2011