International responses to anti-LGBT crackdowns in Africa – Insights from Tanzania

In October 2018, a senior Tanzanian government official announced a crackdown on homosexuality, including the creation of a special committee to track down and arrest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. International actors – including bilateral aid donors and multilateral organizations – strongly condemned these measures and, in a couple of cases, withheld or suspended foreign aid, leading to a domestic backlash.

In this talk, Stephen Brown argues that the crackdown in Tanzania was in fact the continuation of an earlier campaign and is part of a growing range of authoritarian practices not limited to state homophobia carried out by a ruling party that feels under threat, as has been the case in many other countries. The international response, however, was ineffective and even counter-productive, causing the government to expand its moral and anti-imperialist rhetoric, to the detriment of local LGBT people. International actors prioritized quick, visible and selective expressions of displeasure, but would be more effective if they developed long-term strategies in conjunction with local defenders of the rights of LGBT people, not just in Tanzania, but elsewhere in Africa.

Speakers

Stephen Brown, Professor, University of Ottawa, Canada

Lars Engberg-Pedersen, Senior Researcher, DIIS, Denmark

Programme

15.00-15.05 Welcome / Lars Engberg-Pedersen

15.05-15.50 International responses to anti-LGBT crackdowns in Africa: Insights from Tanzania / Stephen Brown

15.50-16.30 Discussion

Practical information

The seminar will be in English and live streamed on diis.dk.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use our online registration form no later than Wednesday 24 April 2019 at 10.00. Live stream does not require registration.

Find info and registration here