Summary

They got Joseph at the bar. They took him to the army camp.  He was stripped naked and tortured. He was molested for four hours. They beat him with an iron belt, asked him to swim in the gutter, and burned plastic bags on his chest….

The next morning I took him to the hospital. I asked him not to file a complaint, because there are no rights. We gays don’t have any backup.

—Friend and housemate of Joseph, a gay man in Southwest Region, October 2012

Cameroon prosecutes people for consensual same-sex conduct more aggressively than almost any country in the world. Unlike many of the 76 countries that currently have such laws on the books, but which rarely enforce them, Cameroonian prosecutors have brought charges against at least 28 people for homosexual conduct over the last three years.

In most cases, the accused are convicted, often on the basis of little or no evidence. Investigators frequently rely on torture or ill-treatment to extract confessions. Although Cameroon’s Criminal Procedure Code contains provisions to the effect that confessions must be accompanied by other forms of evidence, these provisions are not respected.

This report focuses largely on due process violations and other human rights violations committed in Cameroon in the process of arresting and prosecuting people for consensual same-sex conduct. The magnitude of the abuses makes urgent the call for an end to arrests under article 347 bis of the penal code, which penalizes “homosexuality,” defining the term as “sexual relations with a person of the same sex.” However, even if Cameroon’s own criminal procedure were respected fully when enforcing article 347 bis, the article itself would still contravene international human rights law.

Police and government officials have claimed on several occasions that article 347 bis only applies to those who are caught in the act of having sex. The chief of Cameroon’s police force told Human Rights Watch and the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS) that it only applies to those who engage in same-sex conduct publicly. But among the eight people we identified who were convicted for homosexuality between 2010 and 2012, in no case was there even a suggestion in the evidence presented in court that the accused engaged in sexual intercourse publicly. At least three recent cases that law enforcement officials claim constitute flagrant délit—being caught in the act of a crime—were in fact set-ups: a person who claims to have received unwanted advances from a person of the same sex complains to the security forces, who encourage the complainant to make a date with the “suspect,” and then arrest him for “attempted homosexuality,” which is equivalent to the crime of homosexuality under Cameroonian law.

The law criminalizes same-sex activity between both men and women. Most of those who have been arrested to date under article 347 bis are men. However, in one case, documented in Section II, below, two women were also charged with homosexuality.

In one of the most egregious cases documented within this report, in terms of the sheer lack of evidence, two men in Yaoundé were arrested on homosexuality charges in 2011 because gendarmes found a sack of condoms and lubricant in their house while purportedly searching for a stolen laptop. The men were convicted and sentenced to six months in prison. Another man was convicted of homosexuality and attempted homosexuality in 2011 after sending a text message to an acquaintance, saying, “I’ve fallen in love with you.” In Kribi, when intelligence officials heard that a village chief had propositioned a man, in the absence of any complaint or evidence that any crime had been committed, they set up the chief. They convinced the man to make a date with the chief on a secluded beach; according to his lawyer, they then jumped out, arrested him, forced him to strip, took pictures, and made him walk to the intelligence office stark naked. The case was still in progress at time of writing.

Cameroon’s anti-homosexuality law is easily subject to abuse, and can be used by virtually anyone as a method of settling scores. It is also a recipe for extortion: CAMFAIDS has received complaints from its members about several men in Yaoundé who make money by scouting gay web sites, making dates with other men, and then threatening to turn them in for homosexuality if they do not pay up. Given the large number of abusive arrests and the high rate of convictions, many extortion victims do not test their luck, readily handing over money to these predators.

This report is the result of a collaboration between four organizations: Alternatives-Cameroun, a Douala-based organization that provides health services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and advocates for their rights; the Association for the Defense of Gays and Lesbians (Association pour la Défense des Homosexuel-le-s, ADEFHO), a Douala-based group of lawyers and human rights monitors that represents clients accused of homosexuality; Cameroon Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS), a Yaoundé-based advocacy organization that provides legal advice to LGBT people and denounces abuses against them; and Human Rights Watch, an international organization.

The organizations sought to document recent cases of arrests, prosecutions, and convictions under article 347 bis. All four organizations oppose the criminalization of homosexuality, given that arrests for consensual same-sex conduct violate Cameroon’s international human rights commitments, as well as its own constitution. However, even supporters of laws against homosexuality should be seriously concerned about the way in which the law is currently being applied. Homosexuality cases are marked by a staggering number of due process violations and other rights abuses, comprising torture and ill-treatment (including anal examinations), violations of privacy, and blatant homophobia on the part of judges and law enforcement officials.

Unfortunately, some people who are accused of homosexuality lack any legal representation, and when due process violations occur in cases against them, they may never come to light. Ministry of Justice records showed that 22 people were convicted for homosexuality in 2010 and 2011, but the organizations that drafted this report were only aware of eight convictions during the same period—generally, those in which defendants lived in urban centers and had legal representation.

In a climate marked by pervasive homophobia, where media publish sensational stories “outing” public figures as alleged homosexuals and where workshops and other events aimed at advancing LGBT rights have been shut down by both government officials and vigilante mobs, few lawyers are willing to take up such cases.

During the period in which this report was being researched, an alarming new development took place: since late 2012, two lawyers that have defended clients charged with homosexuality have received a series of threats, by text message and email, menacing the lawyers and their children with violence. At time of writing, Cameroonian authorities had taken no action to publicly denounce the threats, although the lawyers had reported them, and no one had been apprehended in relation to these threats.

Arrests in Cameroon on the basis of consensual same-sex conduct not only involve various human rights abuses, they violate the country’s international human rights commitments. Cameroon is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which has been interpreted as prohibiting arrests and discrimination based on sexual orientation. The constitution integrates this covenant and other treaties that Cameroon has ratified into national law. According to article 45 of the constitution, in case of conflicts, international treaties that Cameroon has ratified override national law.

The privacy of the home is protected under the preamble of Cameroon’s constitution, which states that “the home and privacy of correspondence is inviolate.” The constitution ensures that “All human beings are born equal;” it guarantees equal rights to all, as well as “the protection of minorities.” It proclaims that the state shall be secular, independent, and neutral.

In 2010, the Ministry of Justice began a process of revising the 1967 penal code. A draft revision, made public during a 2011 validation process, left the provision on homosexuality unchanged. However, the minister of justice was replaced shortly afterwards. Justice officials told Human Rights Watch and CAMFAIDS that the draft is being reworked under the new minister, but provided no timeline for the revision.

In early 2012, President Paul Biya told diplomats that although he was not prepared to call for the decriminalization of homosexuality in Cameroon, he would seek to impose a moratorium on arrests under article 347 bis. However, no progress had been made to substantiate this commitment at time of writing. In January 2013, during a press conference in France, Biya spoke of a “change of mind” in Cameroon regarding homosexuality, but did not commit to taking any specific steps to decriminalize.

Being attracted to someone or having consensual sex should never be grounds for discrimination and abuse. Cameroon should take immediate steps toward decriminalizing homosexuality and remove article 347 bis—a contravention of international law—from the nation’s penal code.