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The Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria on 26 October 2018 held a side event on Resolution 275 of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Resolution passed by the African Commission in 2014 calls upon state parties to stop violence and other human rights violations against people who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. The purpose of the side event was to discuss how Resolution 275 can be implemented by state and non-state actors. Against this background, the Centre for Human Rights in partnership with Network of African National Human Rights Institutions (NANHRI) successfully launched the Implementation Guidelines on Resolution 275.

Prof Frans Viljoen, the Director of the Centre for Human Rights, stated that when Resolution 275 was passed was a big step forward in terms of recognising LGBT rights in Africa. Unfortunately, since 2014 LGBT people continue to experience violence and other human rights violations. It was against this background that Centre for Human Rights African Men for Sexual Health and Rights [AMSHeR] saw it fit to draft the guidelines on how to implement Resolution 275. The event which was graced by Commissioner Lawrence Mute. Commissioner Mute said that these guidelines were timely. This is because the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights will use these guidelines to ask states on how they have implemented Resolution 275.

The panel discussion had representation from South Africa Human Rights Commission, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, Malawi Human Rights Commission and Uganda Human Rights Commission. The discussion by these panellists was how they have used Resolution 275 in their work especially on investigation human rights violations against LGBT people. They stated that it has been difficult to use the resolution even though they have been trying to use it their work. For instance, in Kenya there has been effort to ensure that reported cases of violence and other human rights violation against LGBT is investigated and perpetrators prosecuted.  Nonetheless, they also applauded the guidelines were timely because they used to work arbitrarily on Resolution 275. With these guidelines available, National Human Rights Institutions and other civil society organisations can now monitor implementation of Resolution 275. These Implementation Guidelines, thus, can also be used by different state agencies like the police, judiciary and other relevant stakeholders. The Guidelines are available in English and French.

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For more information, please contact

Mr William Aseka

Project Coordinator: Sexual Orientation Gender Expression (SOGIE) Unit
Tel: +27 (0) 12 420 5449
Fax: +27 (0) 12 420 6142
william.aseka@up.ac.za 

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