Anti-LGBT countries get to guard human rights for the U.N.
Commentary: Five anti-gay nations shouldn’t be on the U.N. Human Rights Council
“I find it unconscionable that governments criminalizing LGBTI people are entrusted with protecting human rights worldwide”, writes Melanie Nathan, executive director of the African Human Rights Coalition.
In the following commentary she protests last week’s United Nations decision to seat five nations on the U.N. Human Rights Council even though they imprison their citizens for whom they love.
By Melanie Nathan
On Oct. 13, the UN General Assembly elected Brazil, Burundi, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Nepal, Nigeria, Moldova, Ukraine, Uruguay and Zambia to its Human Rights Council for Jan. 1, 2027, through Dec. 31, 2029.
Of the 15 countries elected, five—fully one-third—criminalize consensual same-sex relations. Ten do not, but freedom from criminalization is only the starting point for equality. Just four have established marriage equality, with Nepal a fifth following a Supreme Court ruling whose full implementation still requires reform. These are distinct measures: not imprisoning us does not mean treating us as equals.
Let’s focus on the four African countries elected—all of which criminalize consensual same-sex sexual conduct:
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Zambia: Section 155 provides for 15 years to life imprisonment for “unnatural offenses”; UNHCR reports asylum barriers and refoulement during screening, while Afrobarometer’s 2024 survey found approximately 95% would dislike having homosexual neighbors.
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Ghana: Section 104 criminalizes consensual sex between men with up to three years’ imprisonment; a broader anti-LGBTI bill passed by Parliament still requires presidential assent, where simply “holding out” as LGBTQI+ can send you to jail for a significant period of time, while approximately 81% rejected homosexual neighbors in Afrobarometer’s 2024 survey.
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Burundi: Article 590 criminalizes consensual same-sex relations with up to two years’ imprisonment and a fine; Afrobarometer’s older, 2014 survey found 86% rejected homosexual neighbors.
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Nigeria: Federal laws impose up to 14 years’ imprisonment for specified same-sex offenses and criminalize LGBTI organizing, northern states’ Sharia laws can impose death by stoning, and a further prohibition bill advanced in Cross River State in July; approximately 88% rejected homosexual neighbors in Afrobarometer’s 2024 survey.
[Editor’s note: The fifth anti-LGBT nation newly added to the U.N. Human Rights Council is Kuwait, where gay citizens are subject to up to seven years’ imprisonment.]
All four African countries have undergone the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and received recommendations to decriminalize consensual same-sex relations. Yet criminalization remains. Ghana, Zambia and Burundi were reviewed in 2023, and Nigeria in 2024. Participation in a human rights review has not translated into ending these laws—and now these governments have been elected to help oversee human rights worldwide.
Criminalization does its damage far beyond prosecutions and convictions. Across these countries, it helps legitimize hostility and creates conditions in which family rejection, homelessness, blackmail, extortion, mob attacks, sexual violence, police abuse and even killings, can flourish. It also fosters impunity: perpetrators can exploit victims’ fear of exposure or arrest, while those seeking protection risk being treated as criminals themselves. Counting prosecutions alone misses the machinery of persecution these laws sustain.
“As Executive Director of African Human Rights Coalition, I work with people whose lives are devastated by this persecution. I find it unconscionable that governments criminalizing LGBTI people are entrusted with protecting human rights worldwide. A seat on this Council should demand accountability, not provide a cloak of legitimacy.” — Melanie Nathan
Governments that criminalize the people whose rights they are supposed to protect will sit on the United Nations Human Rights Council for the next three years. And I haven’t even begun to address their other human rights violations.
This is nothing new. The UN has repeatedly allowed governments with appalling human rights records onto this Council. Calling them human rights guardians does not erase the persecution they administer at home. Their election exposes the gulf between the institution’s promise and its political reality.
But hey—who are we to talk?
The United States is hardly covering itself in human rights glory right now. We should bring the same scrutiny to our own government. Human rights mean very little if we demand accountability abroad while excusing cruelty at home.
