Inaction by US, Britain and EU – Bill will soon become law

London – 19 January 2006

"Nigeria seems certain to legislate one of the world's most sweeping and repressive anti-gay laws, unless international pressure is bought to bear on the Nigerian government in the next few weeks," said Peter Tatchell of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender human rights group OutRage!.

"We appeal to gay and human rights groups worldwide to take urgent action to press the Nigerian government to uphold international human rights law and to drop this draconian legislation.

See protest information below.

"A new bill, currently being debated in the Nigerian parliament, is the most comprehensively homophobic legislation ever proposed in any country in the world. Its extremism is rivalled only by the death penalty that exists for homosexuality in several Islamic fundamentalist states," added Mr Tatchell.

"The bill is primarily concerned with banning same-sex marriage, but its sub-clauses go much further. They will strip lesbian and gay Nigerians of their already limited civil rights. The bill outlaws almost every expression, affirmation and celebration of gay identity and sexuality, and prohibits the provision of sympathetic advice and welfare support to lesbians and gay men.

"Violations will be punished with an automatic five year jail sentence.

"The draconian measure will outlaw membership of a gay group, attending a gay meeting or protest, advocating gay equality, donating money to a gay organisation, hosting or visiting a gay website, the publication or possession of gay safer sex advice, renting or selling a property to a gay couple, expressions of same-sex love in letters or emails, attending a same-sex marriage or blessing ceremony, screening or watching a gay movie, taking or possessing photos of a gay couple, and publishing, selling or loaning a gay book or video.

"Even mere socialising by two or more gay people is likely to be interpreted as illegal.

A full briefing on the new bill follows below.

"It widens Nigeria's already harsh anti-gay laws, to criminalise any expression, public or private, of homosexuality. Attending a private gathering of gay people, or imparting HIV prevention information to a gay person, will become a crime.

"Even before this new legislation, homosexuality was punished with a 14-year jail term under civil law, and by the death penalty in the northern regions of the country that are governed by Sharia law.

"The new legislation is backed by the Anglican Church in Nigeria and by its notoriously homophobic Archbishop, Peter Akinola. They are encouraging and endorsing the bill's victimisation of their gay countrymen and women, including the victimisation of their fellow Christians who are gay.

"The new law will criminalise gay Christian gatherings, blessings and celebrations. It is a direct attack on both the Christian and gay communities of Nigeria," said Mr Tatchell.

The bill is entitled, "The Prohibition of Relationships Between Persons of the Same Sex, Celebration of Marriage by Them, and for Other Matters Connected Therewith." It has been approved by the Federal Executive Council and is now before the National Assembly. It is expected to be passed and become law shortly.

Under the bill, a penalty of five years imprisonment will be imposed on any person who "goes through the ceremony of marriage with a person of the same sex," or who "performs, witnesses, aids or abets the ceremony of same sex marriage," or who "is involved in the registration of gay clubs, societies and organisations, sustenance, procession or meetings, publicity and public show of same sex amorous relationship directly or indirectly in public and in private."

What you can do:

Email your protest to the Nigerian High Commissioner in London.

Since Nigeria is a member of the Commonwealth, please also email the Commonwealth Secretary-General, urging him to press the Nigerian government to scrap the new anti-gay law.

Remind both men that this homophobic bill enshrines severe, illegal discrimination and is a violation of Nigeria's commitment to uphold international human rights law.

You could also ask your own MP to write a protest letter to the Nigerian High Commissioner.

Nigerian High Commissioner in London

His Excellency Dr. Christopher Kolade

Email: hc@... Fax: 0207 8398746 Phone: 020 78391244 Address: Nigerian High Commission, 9 Northumberland Avenue, London, WC2N 5BX

Secretary-General of the Commonwealth

Rt Hon Donald C McKinnon

Email: secretary-general@... Fax: 020 7930 0827 Phone: 020 7747 6500 Address: Commonwealth Secretariat, Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX, UK

Further information: Peter Tatchell, OutRage! 020 7403 1790

On 19 January 2006, Justice Minister and Attorney-General, Chief Bayo Ojo, presented to the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria an "Act to Make Provisions for the Prohibition of Relationship Between Persons of the Same Sex, Celebration of Marriage by Them, and for Other Matters Connected Therewith."

The bill has since been approved by the Federal Executive Council and is now before the National Assembly. It is expected to be passed and become law shortly.

Under the bill, a penalty of five years imprisonment will be imposed on any person who "goes through the ceremony of marriage with a person of the same sex," or who "performs, witnesses, aids or abets the ceremony of same sex marriage," or who "is involved in the registration of gay clubs, societies and organisations, sustenance, procession or meetings, publicity and public show of same sex amorous relationship directly or indirectly in public and in private."

Anything deemed to acknowledge, support, condone, acquiesce, endorse or promote a "same-sex amorous relationship" or gay people's welfare and human rights will become illegal.

Already, Chapter 42, section 214, of Nigeria's criminal code penalises consensual homosexual conduct between adults with 14 years' imprisonment. This law was originally introduced by the British colonial administration in the nineteenth century.

In addition, Sharia law, which was introduced in northern Nigeria in

1999, criminalises `sodomy' in Chapter III "Hudud and Hudud related offences", Part III "Sodomy (Liwat)", Section 128-129 of the Kano State Shari'a Penal Code Law 2000.

By criminalising the peaceful expression of gay identity and any association in furtherance of lesbian and gay welfare and rights, the bill strikes at the fundamental freedoms previously enjoyed by the people of Nigeria – providing a dangerous precedent that could be used to later target and restrict the rights of other minorities and human rights advocates.

The Bill Contravenes International Law

The new law undermines fundamental freedoms protected under international law.

The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights affirms the equality of all people:

Article 2 states: "Every individual shall be entitled to the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms recognized and guaranteed in the present Charter without distinction of any kind such as race, ethnic group, colour, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion, national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status."

Article 3 enshrines equality before the law.

Article 26 says: "Every individual shall have the duty to respect and consider his fellow beings without discrimination, and to maintain relations aimed at promoting, safeguarding and reinforcing mutual respect and tolerance."

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Nigeria acceded without reservations in 1993, protects the rights to freedom of expression (article 19), freedom of conscience

(article 18), freedom of assembly (article 21), freedom of association (article 22), and affirms the equality of all people before the law and the right to freedom from discrimination (articles

2 and 26).

In the historic, landmark 1994 legal case of Toonen v Australia, the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which monitors the compliance of member states with the ICCPR, ruled that sexual orientation should be understood to be a status protected from discrimination under these ICCPR articles. States cannot therefore legitimately limit the enjoyment of human rights on the basis of sexual orientation.

The UN Human Rights Committee has since urged states not only to repeal laws criminalising homosexuality but to also enshrine the prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation into their constitutions or other fundamental laws.

This new bill, if passed, would seriously restrict essential freedoms, as well as the activities of human rights defenders and members of civil society.

The United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders states in article 5 that "everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, at the national and international levels: a) to meet or assemble peacefully; b) to form, join and participate in non-governmental organizations, associations or groups." Article 7 of the declaration affirms that "Everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to develop and discuss new human rights ideas and principles and to advocate their acceptance."

Indeed, the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders has specifically called attention to the "greater risks... faced by defenders of the rights of certain groups as their work challenges social structures, traditional practices and interpretations of religious precepts that may have been used over long periods of time to condone and justify violation of the human rights of members of such groups. Of special importance will be... human rights groups and those who are active on issues of sexuality, especially sexual orientation." ("Report of the Special Representative to the Secretary General on human rights defenders," UN Doc. E/CN.4/2001/94 (2001), at 89g)

* Our thanks to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission for providing research and information for this background briefing.

Ends

COMMENT BY SCOTT LONG OF HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, 19 JANUARY 2007

Everyone: I have to try to add a note of caution and realism to this issue. Outrage did not consult or communicate with the Nigerian activists who have been leading the fight against this bill before releasing this alert. Please, people, do not flood Nigerian consulates and embassies with protest letters at this time. It is not what is needed at this juncture; and it is emphatically not what the Nigerian activists who are in the forefront of the struggle want right now.

There are a number of inaccuracies in this alert.

The bill is a horrible, draconian one. (See http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/03/23/nigeri13064.htm for an early response to it from a group of African organizations, as well as IGLHRC and HRW.) But it is not imminently about to pass unless international pressure is applied. To the contrary: Nigerian activists hope, tentatively but with increasing anticipation, that it will die a quiet death if left undisturbed. Since this alert spread worldwide, I have spent a good part of the last two days communicating with colleagues in Nigeria – as well as colleagues from other organizations that have been monitoring the bill's progress, and the general situation in Nigeria, closely. There is no evidence right now that the bill is moving forward. It has been stalled in committee in the legislature for months. While some action on it is still technically possible, the legislature is now winding down and readying for elections. They're not likely to take up the bill unless something – such as an international campaign – pushes them to. Moreover, after the elections there will no longer be a Christian President. This doesn't mean Nigeria's leaders will be less homophobic – but it does mean that the influence of Archbishop Akinola and the Christian Association of Nigeria, who have been the main forces pushing the bill, will be more or less moot.

The consistent message from Nigerian LGBT, sexual rights, and human rights activists for months now has been NOT to apply international pressure, unless the bill suddenly starts to move – because that pressure from the North might give politicians a political opening to push the bill forward "in defense of Nigerian values." In fact, Human Rights Watch has had a short report on the bill ready for months. We have not released it because we listened to our Nigerian colleagues, who told us that it might worsen the situation, and that we should hold it in abeyance unless an emergency arose.

One activist who has worked on this issue for a very long time wrote quite clearly to a group of us yesterday, inside and outside Nigeria, that "Public actions, such as the one proposed by Mr. Tatchell, may bring unwanted and uneducated attention to the issue and unnecessarily instigate the government."

The other thing I need to stress is that none of the LGBT and human rights activists who have worked to develop a political strategy around the bill were ever consulted by Outrage!, or asked about the facts or about strategy, before this release came out. Outrage did not speak to the activists of Alliance Rights, a LGBT and human rights organizations that has been at the forefront of the domestic campaign; or to another Nigerian sexual-rights organization that I will not name here, but which any concerned Nigerian could tell you has been central to the struggle. While I have not yet heard from LEDAP or the Civil Liberties Organization, two mainstream human rights groups that have spoken out against the bill at great risk, I am quite confident that Outrage! never did any outreach to them. GlobalRights – the international human rights group that has an office in Nigeria, has followed the bill on a daily basis, and helped to organize the first meeting between LGBT activists and members of parliament-never heard from Peter or Outrage! on this. And while Outrage! thanks the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission for "providing research and information for this background briefing," that unfortunately gives the wrong impression that they actually spoke to IGLHRC about this. Cary Alan Johnson, IGLHRC's Africa expert who has done a great deal of work opposing the bill, tells me that Outrage! never asked him about it or about how to act on the Nigerian situation.

I'm sure this initiative was entirely well-intentioned. But Nigerian activists are angry. When they are blindsided by a release like this, in defiance of a political strategy they've tried carefully to develop, it looks like a profound act of disrespect. I will take the liberty of quoting a couple of e-mails that were sent to a group of us today. One Nigerian activist with a long record of work on lesbian, gay, transgender and other sexual-rights issues wrote,

"Where has this fellow been all these many months?!!! It is a year plus now since we started the fight to kill the bill. Suddenly, this article that makes it sound like the bill was introduced yesterday! I was not consulted by Mr. Tatchell. And I have shared my opinion openly already about what such actions that have not been well thought through may result in. If you have access to him, please, let him know that we Nigerian based activists are concerned about what negative reaction his article and further actions may whip up."

Another highly respected Nigerian activist for LGBT rights wrote to the group,

"Not only was no communication passed by Peter to all genuinely concerned in Nigeria ... I go a step further to say that his actions and hitherto inactions are an affront to the overwhelming support and activism that the Bill's introduction to the Nigerian NASS [National Assembly] almost 12 months ago engendered mostly from the International community-LGBT and others. We have strategised and will play the wait out game as per the Bill. It will do more harm than good at this point for such noise to be made about the issue at this dying moments of the Obasanjo administration."

I don't doubt I'll be told that Outrage had the support of Nigerian exiles in putting out this alert, and it's quite conceivable that they will find a Nigerian organization that supports them in this. That simply isn't the point. There is no excuse for sending out an alert like this without first getting a very clear and factual sense of the political situation in Nigeria, and without talking to, and evaluating the opinions of, ALL the activists, especially those who have been lobbying the legislature and leading the campaign. Even if Outrage did speak to someone in Nigeria who said, "The bill is about to be passed! Mobilize the world!"-that doesn't relieve them of the responsibility to seek the opinions of the full range of LGBT and human rights activists there, and trying to determine what the bill's actual status was.

Please, friends: think twice before sending e-mails to consulates and embassies, and waking the sleeping giant of Nigerian government support for the bill. Action may be necessary in future if the bill should revive. Nigerian voices say it's counterproductive now.

p.s. One smaller point. As several African and other colleagues have pointed out, for a UK-based organization to use the term "savage" in its advocacy around Nigeria is unintentionally insensitive and insulting. It lapses back into the colonial stereotypes that two generations of post-colonial African struggles to assert dignity and freedom have fought to destroy.

STATEMENT BY PETER TATCHELL, 22 JANUARY 2007

London – 22 January 2007

Scott Long of Human Rights Watch has queried OutRage!'s tactics concerning Nigeria's anti-gay Bill. He suggested that Nigerian activists now think the Bill may die in committee and that a high- profile campaign could be counter-productive – it might spur the Nigerian government to push the Bill forward again. Scott is advising that the international LGBTI movement should take no further action.

This is obviously a consideration that all of us should take seriously.

OutRage! was not aware, until Scott mentioned it, of any change of tactics over this draconian legislation. It is a pity the international LGBTI movement was not informed when the decision was taken to de-escalate the campaign against the Bill. This would have avoided the current situation.

What OutRage! heard, from early in 2006, was a call for an international campaign to lobby the Nigerian government. This is what OutRage! (and many other LGBTI groups worldwide) have been doing since then.

For nearly a year, we have lobbied the Nigerian government and issued news releases on the Bill. I have spoken about it on radio and TV programmes, and written about it on The Guardian newspaper's Comment is Free website.

Two things prompted OutRage! to issue its latest news release: requests from individual LGBTI Nigerians in Nigeria and from Nigerian LGBTI exiles and asylum seekers in the UK; and a series of recent press reports which suggested the Bill will become law.

The Wall Street Journal (12 January 2007), PrideSource (21 December

2006) and Associated Press (11 December 2006) gave the impression that the Bill was going ahead.

This was also suggested by a news report on the African LGBTI website, Behind The Mask, which reproduced the Associated Press article on 11 December 2006.

Rex Wockner's International News 660 and 662 (18 December 2006 and 1 January 2007) reported "Nigeria set to ban gay life" and spoke of the Bill being "expected to pass."

Paula Ettelbrick , Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), mentioned the Bill in her excellent Los Angeles Times article on 4 December 2006.

Previously, Cary Alan Johnson, also of IGLHRC, posted to the CHR list on 20 September 2006 that Nigeria was "poised to adopt" the Bill.

A similar impression was given in an article in the November issue of Gay Times in London – written by a gay Nigerian, Jide Macaulay.

The danger of the Bill becoming law was also highlighted by Leo Igwe, Secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement, writing in the UK's Gay Humanist Quarterly.

Indeed, in just the last few days Igwe advised the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association that "pressure must be brought to bear on Nigerian lawmakers and government to ensure that this oppressive piece of legislation does enter the statue book."

Quite understandably, given this welter of reports suggesting the Bill was proceeding and likely to become law, OutRage! wanted to help our Nigerian brothers and sisters by organising a last ditch lobbying effort to stop it being passed by the Nigerian parliament.

We acted in good faith. But now we have been informed by Scott Long that campaigning on the Bill is no longer necessary or advisable (for the moment, at least).

Accordingly, we will consult with LGBTI colleagues and organisations in Nigeria to discuss what should or should not be done from now on with regard to the Bill.

The lesson of this episode is this: we need better communication in the international LGBTI movement. If there are changes in campaign tactics, this needs to be circulated to all LGBTI groups and campaign e-lists as quickly as possible.

Onwards! Forwards! Upwards!

Thank you and solidarity!

Peter Tatchell, OutRage!, London

AN APPEAL TO PETER TATCHELL BY AFRICAN LGBTI ACTIVISTS, 25 JANUARY 2007

Dear Peter:

We are a group of 21 activists who have been closely involved in the struggle against the homophobic legislation in Nigeria for more than a year now. Some of us are Nigerian leaders of the human rights struggle, some of us activists working elsewhere in Africa. Some of us work for international organizations and have visited Nigeria to investigate the situation and lend our support. We have worked together to gather testimonies and opinions of Nigerian LGBT people. Some of us have also supported Nigerian asylum-seekers with accurate information in affidavits and letters. Together we have been part of a Nigerian-led strategy to support LGBT people's human rights there.

Many other African activists concerned by your recent actions are currently in Nairobi at the World Social Forum, and they will write to you about your actions from there. But we need to address you urgently. Now.

Peter, we believe that your actions are dangerously irresponsible, and are endangering others.

It is wrong to move forward on an action without consulting the activists who have been leading the fight, and are most affected. It would have been easy for you to identify those activists ten months ago. Many of them signed a letter to the Nigerian government in March

2006, which is easily available on the web (on the websites of Amnesty International, HRW, and IGLHRC, among others).

Unfortunately, none of them have heard from you. Moreover, it is wrong to continue in that action now, and to pick and choose and quote and misquote activists to find one who can be construed to agree with you–a tactic which risks dividing the Nigerian movement against itself.

Leo Igwe's comments that were quoted in George Broadhead's recent press release are being taken out of context. Leo was not saying that Nigerians are calling for increased action NOW. Moreover, while Leo is a very courageous friend and ally of the movement, he does not represent any LGBT constituency. You cannot rely on that one lone voice instead of trying – not even once! – to reach out to the activists who have worked with press and politicians, rallied civil society, met with parliamentarians, led the campaign.

Peter, everyone in Nigeria in a position to know agrees: on the day your action was issued, the bill was effectively dead. It would take an extraordinary procedure by the National Assembly to revive it now, at this late date, before the elections. But activists also agree–and we have tried to convey this to you–that international pressure right now is just what could cause that extraordinary procedure to be invoked. If the bill suddenly revives and moves forward, we fear it will be your initiative – taken without consulting responsible voices in Nigeria, in a press release devoted to paragraphs of quotes by you – that will be responsible.

You are risking the safety and security of people in Nigeria. It's appalling to move forward on a call for action like this without the consent of leaders of the Nigerian movement. To persist in it for the sake of your reputation is even worse.

We would like to remind you of your abortive attempt this autumn to work with the LGBT movement in Uganda. At the end of a long, frustrating exchange – where all her attempts to communicate with you about vital concerns of safety and accuracy had failed – one activist, the best-known and certainly one of the most exposed LGBT activists in Uganda, wrote directly to you:

"You have included unverified information in your press releases and those allegations against the government are going to come back to us. You will sit safely in London while our activists in Uganda pay the price for your deeds.... We have many people in the West who support our struggle, but they would not do anything to jeopardize our safety.... You have shown a blatant disregard for the reputations and safety of legitimate activists in Uganda.... I know what effect your press releases have on my country. Please put a stop to all your press releases regarding my country. It must stop."

That should have been clear.

Yet a week later, defying those clear instructions, you issued yet another press release on Uganda. And Outrage helped organize a demonstration against the Ugandan High Commission in London.

That was a breach of trust. So was your call for action on Nigeria. We have heard from multiple sources that demonstrations have been planned, letters written, and even more press generated about the bill. This is exactly the opposite of what Nigerian and international activists feel needs to happen. Peter, this is no way to treat genuine activists, in Nigeria or elsewhere. For the sake of your own reputation in history's eyes, as well as for safety of activists working in situations of deep and present danger, we ask you: please stop.

In this immediate case, we ask that you take any and all public measures to rescind your recent call for public action on Nigeria .

Dorothy Aken'Ova INCRESE, Nigeria

Monique Boivin Human Rights Defender

Mark Bromley Director of External Relations and Policy, Global Rights

Mac Darling Cobbinah Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights Ghana

Danilo da Silva LGBTI Mozambique

Stefano Fabeni Director, LGBTI Initiative, Global Rights

Susana Fried Consultant, Global Rights

Samuel Ganafa Chairperson, Spectrum Uganda

Kasha N. Jacqueline Chairperson of Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG)

Cary Alan Johnson Senior Program Specialist for Africa, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Emmanuel Kamau Chairperson of ISHTAR Kenya

David Kato Integrity Uganda

Wendy Landau Human Rights Researcher, Behind the Mask (BtM), South Africa

Bart Luirink Founder, Behind the Mask (BtM), South Africa

Juliet Victor Mukasa Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)

Joel Gustave Nana Human Rights Researcher, Alternatives-Cameroon

Judith Ngunjiri Minority Women in Action

Peter Njoroge Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya

Oludare Odumuye Alliance Rights, Nigeria

Cynthia Rothschild Independent Human Rights Consultant

Fikile Vilakazi Director of the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL)

PRESS RELEASE BY AFRICAN LGBTI ACTIVISTS, 31 JANUARY 2007

Press release: African LGBTI Human Rights Defenders Warn Public Against Participation in Campaigns Concerning LGBTI Issues in Africa Led by Peter Tatchell and Outrage!

Public Statement of Warning

In order to prevent Peter Tatchell and Outrage! from causing further damage through their unfounded campaigns and press releases, we issue this public statement of warning.

However, Outrage! has been acting in contempt and disregard of the wishes and lives of African Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) Human Rights Defenders. We have made every attempt to address this matter with Outrage!, personally, and they have refused to listen. We now take this matter to the public, requesting you not to take part in any of Peter Tatchell or Outrage!'s campaigns regarding Africa, as they are not factually-based and are harmful to African activists.

Through the following actions, Outrage! has repeatedly disrespected the lives, damaged the struggle, and endangered the safety of African Human Rights Defenders:

1. Outrage!'s press releases contain information that is not factual. They do not verify information before including it in their press releases. When they are corrected by local activists, they refuse to print retractions or to make any attempt to stop the damaging effects of their press releases.

3. Outrage! does not consult the relevant local activists before embarking on campaigns that directly affect us and are destructive to our work. They disregard collaborative efforts by African LGBTI Human Rights Defenders and international Human Rights organisations, and come up with unilateral strategies that work against the progress being achieved by the rest of the Human Rights actors. We are tired of having to constantly expend energy working to undo irreparable damage that Outrage! has caused.

4. Outrage! exaggerates the violations our governments commit. When they quote African Human Rights Defenders in the very same press releases where they are exaggerating claims against our governments, we are held responsible for their reckless outbursts. As African activists, we are then left to face the wrath of our communities for statements we never made.

5. Outrage! does not listen to, value, or heed the advice of local genuine activists. They mix our words with the opinions of uninformed, naïve, or crook individuals. They take whatever information is available, regardless of the source, and twist it to gain more publicity. Certainly, Outrage! is not acting on our behalf.

As African LGBTI Human Rights Defenders, we are working toward the recognition of our rights by our governments in Africa. We do not appreciate or accept the efforts of Western-based individuals or organisations who try to make our work for liberation into an ego-boosting publicity campaign for themselves. We condemn Peter Tatchell and Outrage! for their irresponsible journalism and a deplorable lack of respect for the very people they claim they are defending.

We will continue to work with our governments on the acknowledgement and protection of our basic human rights as African lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people. Furthermore, we will proudly defend our right as Africans to praise our governments when they protect and acknowledge us.

Our message

United as African LGBTI Human Rights Defenders, we send out the following messages:

Stay out of African LGBTI issues. You have proven that you have no respect for conveying the truth with regards to Africa or consulting African LGBTI leaders before carrying out campaigns that have severe consequences in our countries. You have betrayed our trust over and over again.

International collaboration can give strength to already vibrant LGBTI campaigns in Africa . Consult from reliable sources that investigate cases before they report, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International (AI), and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). Peter Tatchell and Outrage! are not reliable sources on LGBTI issues in Africa and information from them should not be trusted or used as a basis for action.

Present Situation

After being warned that the advice of Nigerian activists is to refrain from putting attention on the dormant bill, Outrage! looked for some individual in Nigeria to support them in the course they had already chosen to take. To serve this purpose, Leo Igwe's comments were quoted in George Broadhead's recent press release and are being taken out of context. While Leo is a very courageous friend and ally of the movement, Outrage! should have contacted and requested advice on strategy from the LGBTI Human Rights Defenders who led the original campaign against the bill from Nigeria.

Over the past ten months, Human Rights Defenders from the region and elsewhere have exercised a lot of formal and informal pressure on Nigerian law-makers to make sure the bill did not get passed into law. Until Outrage!'s action was issued, the bill was dead. By calling on people to begin a campaign at this stage, interest could be awakened in the bill. Outrage! is acting irresponsibly and in direct contradiction to the advice of leaders of the Nigerian LGBTI movement.

Background

Just five months ago, a similar situation was evolving in Uganda. Outrage! had included unverified information in a press release on Uganda and was refusing to listen to the concerns of Ugandan LGBT Human Rights Defenders. After many conversations about the importance of accuracy, fact-checking, and consultation with genuine African activists, Ugandan Human Rights Defender Juliet Victor Mukasa, finally wrote directly to Peter Tatchell:

"You have included unverified information in your press releases and those allegations against the government are going to come back to us. You will sit safely in London while our activists in Uganda pay the price for your deeds ... We have many people in the West who support our struggle, but they would not do anything to jeopardize our safety. ... You have shown a blatant disregard for the reputations and safety of legitimate activists in Uganda ... I know what effect your press releases have on my country. Please put a stop to all your press releases regarding my country. It must stop."

Immediately following the receipt of this message, Outrage! issued yet another press release on Uganda, and helped organise a demonstration against the Ugandan High Commission in London.

These examples from Nigeria and Uganda are just two out of many instances of breaches of trust and disregard for the work, wisdom, and lives of African Human Rights Defenders. We have repeatedly asked Outrage! to retract their calls to action and to restrain from any further action regarding LGBTI issues in Africa. Outrage! has refused. As we would do in the case of any person or organisation acting out of such blatant disrespect for the truth and for the people they claim to defend, we urge the public not to participate in LGBTI campaigns led by Peter Tatchell or Outrage! which pertain to our continent, Africa.

Dorothy Aken'Ova
INCRESE, 1E,Bosso Road
G.P.O. 3684, Minna
Niger State Nigeria
increse@lycos.com, darlyndotty@yahoo.co.uk
08065488417, 08034500714

Juliet Victor Mukasa
Chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)
julie.mukasa@gmail.com
+27 79 194 9561

Fikile Vilakazi
Director of the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL)
Johannesburg, South Africa

Wendy Landau
Human Rights Researcher, Behind the Mask (BtM)
Johannesburg, South Africa

Kasha N. Jacqueline
Chairperson of Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG)
jnkasha@gmail.com
+256 772 463161

David Kato
Integrity Uganda

Samuel Ganafa
Chairperson of Spectrum Uganda

Danilo da Silva
LGBTI Mozambique

Judith Ngunjiri
Minority Women in Action, Kenya

Emmanuel Kamau
Chairperson of ISHTAR Kenya

Peter Njoroge
Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya (GALCK)

Joel Gustave Nana
Human Rights Researcher, Alternatives-Cameroon

Ayesha Imam
Human Rights Defender
Nigeria/Senegal

Sokari Ekine
Human Rights Defender, Black Looks
sokari@blacklooks.org

Carlos Idibouo
Consellor at TAGL
Advisor at AfriCar Project
idibouoc@yahoo.fr
famillegay2006@yahoo.fr
+1 647 261 3214/ +1 416 922 4226

Mac Darling Cobbinah
Centre for Popular Education and Human Rights Ghana

Kanuma Georges
Leader of LGBTI group ARDHO, Burundi

Linda Baumann
The Rainbow Project (TRP)
Namibia

Thuli Madi
Director, Behind the Mask
Johannesburg, South Africa

Oludare Odumuye
Alliance Rights, Nigeria