Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-03-15-Speech-4-240"
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"en.20070315.26.4-240"2
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"Mr President, in spite of many problems, the situation has improved since the fall of the military dictatorship in 1999. It is odd, therefore, that a law impairing human rights is now suddenly being devised. Homosexuality is already banned and can be punished by means of everything from fines to 14-year prison sentences. We also know that, at the level of the constituent states, there is sharia law that condemns unmarried people convicted of homosexuality to 100 lashes and even imposes the death penalty on married people so convicted. Now, there is a desire to introduce a ban not only on homosexual marriages but even on being a witness to, or helping plan, such a marriage, with up to five years’ imprisonment for those convicted.
Can anyone in this House explain to me how it might fatally undermine society to witness a declaration of love between two people? I cannot understand how it could be a punishable offence. Because it is also illegal in any way to help homosexuals organise themselves, lawyers and human rights activists are also in danger of being affected, a state of affairs that makes a debate on homosexual rights impossible.
One thing that does in actual fact exist at present is sufficient tolerance of homosexuality for the largest daily newspaper
to carry contact ads for lesbians. The law banning homosexuality has nothing to do with combating the spread of AIDS, as some people maintain – the large majority of those infected are heterosexual – and even if there were in fact such a reason for this law, it would be a stupid one because settled relationships reduce the spread of infection. Given the situation, marriages between homosexuals should be encouraged and facilitated. Nigeria needs more love and kinship, and to approve laws of this type would be to begin a retreat to dictatorship and oppression. I would call on the President to abolish the law concerned."@en1
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"This Day"1
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