Gambia on Verge of Enacting Life Imprisonment Law for Aggravated Homosexuality
Gambia is on the verge of enacting a law that would sentence its citizens to life in prison if convicted of aggravated homosexuality. Leading human rights groups have urged Gambian President Yahya Jammeh not to sign the legislation into law, though Amnesty International says it is unlikely he will be persuaded against it.
The country's current law imposes jail terms of up to 14 years for people charged with engaging in hoomosexual acts. The new law, passed by the National Assembly in August, would impose life in prison for those who break its aggravated homosexuality laws, and pertains to repeat offenders, people who are HIV-positive and those who sexually assault a minor.
"Gambia's bill is a copycat of the Ugandan legislation," Adotei Akwei, Amnesty International's managing director of government relations, claimed in an interview with MSNBC. "We expect [Jammeh] to sign it into law. He's never held back on a threat he's made."
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BBC News reported that Jammeh has spoken out strongly against homosexuality in the past, and is expected to sign the bill before Sept. 24.
According to the BBC, the president has said that he will "fight these vermins called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes."
Ty Cobb, Human Rights Campaign's director of global engagement, asserted that laws are "draconian" and have no place in the 21st century.
"When a bill advances that deprives LGBT people of their basic human rights, whether it be in The Gambia, Nigeria or Brunei, the Obama administration should conduct a full diplomatic review of the United States' relationship with those countries," Cobb said.
"The U.S. government cannot move forward with business as usual when LGBT people are threatened with harassment, imprisonment, or even death because of who they are or whom they love," he added.
Ned Price, assistant press secretary and director for strategic communications at the National Security Council, added in an email:
"While this bill has not passed into law, as a general matter, we have made clear our commitment to promoting and protecting the human rights of LGBT persons around the world, and our opposition to discriminatory legislation that threatens these rights. We reiterate our calls on the government of The Gambia to protect the human rights of all Gambians."
Close to 90 percent of Gambia's population is Muslim, the CIA Factbook notes, while another 8 percent identify as Christians.
