DIIS-seminar: Anti-homoseksuelle love i Afrika

TID: Fredag den 12. december kl. 09.00-12.00

STED: DIIS Auditorium, Gl. Kalkbrænderi Vej 51 A (ved Nordhavn S-station), Kbn Ø

TILMELDING: Senest den 11. december kl 12.00 på https://www.conferencemanager.dk/Anti-gayLawsinAfrica/sign-up.html

TID: Fredag den 12. december kl. 09.00-12.00

STED: DIIS Auditorium, Gl. Kalkbrænderi Vej 51 A (ved Nordhavn S-station), Kbn Ø

TILMELDING: Senest den 11. december kl 12.00 på https://www.conferencemanager.dk/Anti-gayLawsinAfrica/sign-up.html

Deltagelse er gratis. Seminaret holdes på engelsk.

Anti-gay Laws in Africa – Rights and Challenges

The Ugandan law criminalizing homosexuality was declared illegal by Uganda’s Constitutional Court in August 2014, but new legislation is underway.

These recent developments have brought the issues of homosexuality, human rights, and tensions between national self-determination and Western values in Africa high on local and global agendas.

This seminar brings together a spectrum of experts to address the issues of anti-gay laws in Africa, and includes discussions of Uganda, Nigeria, and Kenya.

The seminar will provide the historical background for attitudes towards homosexuality in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as developments since the turn of the century.

It will examine the competing explanations for the anti-gay laws in Uganda, as well as include an on-the-ground perspective of a Ugandan legal advocate for homosexual rights.

The seminar also will focus on the role of social media and of civil society organizations.

Social media play a dual role in these developments, providing both a platform for activists protesting against the law, and a tool for those celebrating the laws.

Speakers will discuss how LGBT groups can challenge the stigmatization and discrimination in their everyday lives.

The seminar will also highlight the challenges and opportunities in the inter-linkages between local and global contexts, and the implications for how Danish/ Northern organizations might react.

Speakers

Tania Dethlefsen is the International Director of The Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA).

DFPA has for a number of years worked for LGBT rights in their global advocacy work and works currently with LGBT organizations in Kenya.

She is also the Chairperson of Eurongos, a European Network of more than 35 organizations that work for sexual and reproductive rights. She has worked with development cooperation and human rights for the last 15 years.

Holger Bernt Hansen is Professor Emeritus and was Professor in African Studies and Director of the Centre of African Studies, University of Copenhagen, 1987- 2006.

He has served as member of the Board of Danida 1987-2007 and Chairman 1996 – 2007; Chairman of the Council for International Development Cooperation, Danish Foreign Ministry, 2002-2012.

He has over the years done research on Uganda in close collaboration with Makerere University, and has published and edited several books on Uganda.

Susanne Branner Jespersen is an anthropologist and conflict mediator, presently working part-time as a project manager at LGBT Denmark with human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in the Global South, besides mediating inter-personal conflicts at various Danish workplaces.

At LGBT Denmark, she is coordinating a capacity building project on LGBT issues for Danish NGO’s and will soon be launching a project offering organizational support to LGBT organizations in Tanzania.

She is currently also in charge of the knowledge databasewww.lgbtnet.dk – a resource collection of LGBT issues in development; the only of its kind globally.

Fridah Mutesi is a human right lawyer in Uganda working with Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), an advocacy organization and one of the petitioners in a land mark case that led to the over throw of the Anti Homosexuality Act 2014 in the Constitutional Court of Uganda. 

The organization further, runs the only specialized legal aid services at no cost.

Kristof Titeca is a lecturer at the Institute of Development Policy and Management at the University of Antwerp.

He has worked on the politics of Central Africa, and particularly Uganda, for the last 12 years.

Sine Plambech is an anthropologist (PhD) and researcher at DIIS. She works with the themes of sex work, migration and trafficking in Nigeria and Europe. 

Plambech combines her research with documentary filmmaking and visual anthropology.

Programme

09.00-09.05

Introduction

Robin May Schott, Senior Researcher, DIIS

09.05-09.25

Background to the Controversy about Homosexuality in Africa

Holger Bernt Hansen, Professor Emeritus, University of Copenhagen

09.25-09.45

Equal Love: Social Media, Images and Activism

Sine Plambech, Researcher, DIIS

09.45-10.05

The Rise and Fall of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014: Lasting Impact on the LGBTI organizing in Uganda

Fridah Mutesi, Head of Department, Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF)

10.05-10.25

Discussion

10.25-10.40

Coffee Break

10.40-11.00

Uganda’s Anti-homosexuality Legislation: Beyond a Single Explanation

Kristof Titeca, Assistant Professor, University of Antwerp

11.00-11.20

New Laws is not the Solution; Challenging Stigma and Discrimination

Susanne Branner Jespersen, Project Coordinator, LGBT Denmark

11.20-11.40

LGBT Rights: A Local and Global Battlefield

Tania Dethlefsen, International Director, The Danish Family Planning Association (DFPA)

11.40-12.00

Discussion