BRITAIN: Secretary General Of Commonwealth Nations Vows To Pursue Decriminalizing Homosexuality

Homosexuality remains criminalized in 40 Commonwealth nations. Newly-elected Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland wants to do something about that. Via the Independent:

A report this month by the Kaleidoscope Trust shows that more than 90 per cent of LGBT Commonwealth citizens live in jurisdictions where they are treated as criminals or suffer discrimination.

Testimony from LGBT people in that report ranged from the struggle to find work in Rwanda to being pelted with stones in unprovoked attacks in Dominica. In some Nigerian states, homosexuality for men is punishable by death by stoning. The same punishment is being introduced in Brunei, where a civil servant was fined £470 this year for cross-dressing in public.

Speaking to The Independent on Sunday on the fringes of CHOGM, where on 27 November she was named the next Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Scotland said she would “absolutely” be talking to member states about LGBT rights. However, she refused to guarantee that the issue would be on the agenda at the next CHOGM, noting that the Commonwealth operated by consensus and so needed to be persuaded rather than told what to do.

Baroness Scotland said: “What we have to accept is that this [decriminalising homosexuality] is something that will depend on consensus. We do not have the right or opportunity to force states, but we can start a really good conversation to work with them so they understand the economic issues in relations to human rights and make the change. The one thing I have to do is to build consensus and trust and I can hope it will [be on the next Chogm agenda].”

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