/ 26 October 2017

SA lawyers arrested in Tanzania for ‘promoting homosexuality’ get bail

Activists campaign outside the Tanzanian embassy in Pretoria this week.
Activists campaign outside the Tanzanian embassy in Pretoria this week.

More than a week after their arrest in Tanzania for “the promotion of homosexuality”, a group of 13 human rights lawyers have finally been granted bail – although they have yet to be officially charged.

Two of those arrested are South African, including Sibongile Ndashe, executive director of the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (Isla).

The arrests took place in Dar es Salaam last Tuesday when the Tanzanian police raided a legal consultation meeting, convened by Isla and Community Health Services and Advocacy (Chesa).

ISLA and Chesa said their meeting was “in order to get more instructions and evidence on a case that was to be before a court”. Human Rights Watch said the aim of the meeting was to “explore the possibility of mounting legal challenges to the government’s ban on drop-in centres serving key populations at risk of HIV, as well as the ban on importation of water-based lubricants, an essential HIV prevention tool.”

Isla and Chesa said the “mischaracterisation of a legal consultation – where lawyers and their clients were discussing a very specific case to be referred to the court – is unfortunate.”

The police had a copy of the concept note and the agenda of the consultation,” they said.

In a statement, Human Rights Watch added: “While it is true that ‘carnal knowledge against the order of nature’ is criminalized in Tanzania under a colonial-era law, by no measure of the imagination is it a crime to hold a meeting.”

“In fact, the meeting … was not even about homosexuality,” said Human Rights Watch. 

Carl Collison is the Other Foundation‘s Rainbow Fellow at the Mail & Guardian


The Other Foundation