Victory for LGBTI advocates in Botswana court
Botswana’s LGBTI advocacy group Legabibo today won an appeals court decision ordering the Botswana government to grant it official recognition.
The government had argued that it should not recognize Legabibo (Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana) because LGBT people’s rights are not recognized by the Constitution and because Legabibo’s goals were “incompatible with peace, welfare and good order in Botswana.”
But the Court of Appeal ruled that the denial violated Legabibo members’ constitutional rights to equal protection of the law, freedom of association and freedom of expression. The appellate judges also ruled that promoting the human rights of LGBTI persons and advocating for law reform are not unlawful.
Legabibo issued this celebratory press release:
Groundbreaking judgment by Botswana Court of Appeal on freedom of association and LGBTI rights
On 16 March 2016, a full bench of the Court of Appeal of Botswana delivered a significant judgment in the case of Attorney General v Thuto Rammoge and 19 Others upholding the decision of the High Court and ordering the Botswana government to register the organisation Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO) as a society in terms of the Societies Act. Whilst activists gathered at the Court of Appeal in Gaborone to hear the judgment, activists from throughout SADC [the Southern African Development Community] posted messages of support on social media.
In 2012, LEGABIBO, which had been coordinated from within the Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/ AIDS (BONELA), applied but were refused registration as a society by the Director of the Department of Civil and National Registration and subsequently the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs. The government’s position was that lesbian, gay and bisexual persons’ rights were not recognised by the Constitution and the objectives of LEGABIBO were incompatible with peace, welfare and good order in Botswana.
Thuto Rammoge and other activists, with technical and legal support from the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa (OSISA) and BONELA, took the government of Botswana to the High Court seeking a review of the decision to refuse registration. They argued that the decision was irrational and in violation of their constitutional rights to equal protection of the law, freedom of association and freedom of expression. The activists obtained a successful judgment in the High Court in November 2014, but the State appealed the decision.
The Court of Appeal reaffirmed that the refusal to register LEGABIBO was both irrational and in violation of the right to freedom of association. In an important judgment for the LGBTI community, the Court emphasised that there is no legislation in Botswana which prohibits anyone from being homosexual. The Court went further to hold that the objectives of LEGABIBO, which include promoting the human rights of LGBTI persons and advocating for law reform, were not unlawful. Importantly, the Court of Appeal emphasised that fundamental rights are to be enjoyed by every person and to deny this, is denying an individual’s human dignity.
Caine Youngman, LEGABIBO Advocacy and Awareness officer, has been a part of the registration process from the beginning and said that, “The win gives us hope, faith and belief in Botswana’s legal system. It has been a very long and exhausting 11 years since we first started the journey to have our organisation registered.” …
For more information:
- Read the full Legibobo press release.
- See also Southern Africa Litigation Center documentation about the case.
Related articles
- Three cheers for Botswana’s LGBTI-friendly former leader (February 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Botswana gay rights group to fight gov’t appeal on recognition (Jan. 22, 2015, StarAfrica.com)
- Botswana gay rights group to fight gov’t appeal on recognition (Jan. 22, 2015, Out & Proud Diamond Group)
- Victory in court for Botswana LGBTI rights group (Nov. 15, 2014, 76crimes.com)
- 12 grim lands, 7 bright spots in LGBTI preview of 2015 (Jan. 7, 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Botswana: We might detain, deport sex workers, not gays (Nov. 6, 2013, 76crimes.com)
- In dispute: Botswana plan to deport ‘gay foreigners,’ arrest locals
- Former Botswana leader: Fight AIDS by changing anti-gay laws
- Botswana chiefs: ‘Homosexuality has always been here’
- Botswana again rejects LGBT anti-AIDS group
I am so happy for you guys I wish other nations can follow on the footsteps of bostwana in my country I wish I could do anything to raise awareness for LGBT living here just know if you need my help in any way am willing to help… Am Dennis Brown from Kenya
That is right. Every human being should be able to enjoy his/her fundamental rights of love in peace and this should not be denied to anyone.
A win that should not even have been a battle. It’s time for the whole of Africa to wake up and realise that human rights are not set in a culture – they are fundamental to human beings themselves.