Call for Abstracts: Sexual and Gender Minority Rights in Africa Conference

The aim of the conference is to critically analyse how anti-sodomy laws can be decriminalised under the prevailing hostile legal and political environment against sexual and gender minority rights in Africa.  The conference will be held in hybrid format on 23 November 2023 in South Africa and online. It is anticipated that papers presented at this conference will be reworked by authors and submitted to be part of an edited book on decriminalisation of Anti-sodomy laws in Africa.

Relying on national constitutional frameworks, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other international instruments, the upcoming conference seeks to examine strategies for decriminalisation specifically in the face of the hostile legal and political environment currently prevailing in Africa.

Participants

• The conference seeks to bring together stakeholders interested in promoting the rights of sexual and gender minority rights in Africa, including sexual and gender minority rights activists, scholars, social scientists, policymakers, lawyers, media practitioners, religious and/or traditional leaders and human rights defenders.
• Possible topics to consider
  • Grounded on the need for decriminalisation and the protection of sexual and gender minorities in the prevailing hostile environment in Africa, possible topics to consider include but are not limited to the following:
    • Countering the effects of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda and Ghana on sexual and gender minority rights in Africa.
    • Strategies for decriminalisation in the face of new anti-homosexuality laws in Uganda, Ghana and other African states with similar hostile legal environments.
    • Strategies to prevent the introduction of new anti-homosexuality laws in other countries in Africa.
    • Withdrawal and denial of observer status by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights to civil society organisation that have a full or partial focus on sexual and gender minority rights focus.
    • Strategies for using Resolution 275 as a litigation and advocacy tool in the face push back and anti-rights rhetoric against sexual and gender minority rights in Africa.
    • How ali-parliamentarians can be mobilised to repeal anti-sodomy and other laws that negatively impact on the rights of sexual and gender minorities.
    • The role of scholarship and research in advancing the rights of sexual and gender minorities in the prevailing hostile environment in Africa.
    • Advocacy and mobilisation against the anti-rights and anti-gender movement in Africa.
    • The role of National Human Rights Institutions in decriminalisation and the prevention of new anti-homosexuality/ sodomy laws.
    • The possible impact of unconstitutional changes of government on sexual and gender minority rights in Africa.
    • Building positive media narratives on sexual and gender minority rights in an increasingly hostile legal and political environment in Africa.
    • The role of religious and/or traditional leaders in shifting social attitudes towards sexual and gender minorities.
  • As part of underscoring the importance of multi-sectoral responses and partnerships in the production of knowledge, they particularly encourage joint abstracts between scholars, policymakers and sexual and gender minority rights organisations.

Submission Specifications

• Abstracts should be sent in English or French with a word length of 400-450 words in MS Word format (not PDF).
• Abstracts must include in a single document:
  • Title of abstract
  • Author’s name
  • Affiliation
  • E-mail address

For more information, visit Centre for Human Rights.