LGBT Rights
Male, but not female, homosexuality is illegal. Persons known to be gay suffer intense social discrimnation. There are underground LGBT support groups. Lesbians are often subject to rapes planned by their families with the intention of turning them straight.
The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone noted in its report for 2011 that the government of Sierra Leone had signed a UN Human Rights Council statement in March of that year calling on nations “to take steps to end acts of violence, criminal sanctions and related human rights violations committed against individuals because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” Yet the government had “rejected recommendations made during the UPR” that called on it to ban “discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and to repeal all provisions which may be applied to criminalize sexual activities between consenting adults.” The HRCSL further noted the “growing hostile comments on this issue in the media and by religious communities.”
Read more about this topic: Human Rights In Sierra Leone
Famous quotes containing the word rights:
“If the veil were withdrawn from the sanctuary of domestic life, and man could look upon the fear, the loathing, the detestations which his tyranny and reckless gratification of self has caused to take the place of confiding love, which placed a woman in his power, he would shudder at the hideous wrong of the present regulations of the domestic abode.”
—Lydia Jane Pierson, U.S. women’s rights activist and corresponding editor of The Woman’s Advocate. The Woman’s Advocate, represented in The Lily, pp. 117-8 (1855-1858 or 1860)