Promoting Global Equality in the Commonwealth

Equality Caucus Chair Nick Herbert wrote for The Parliamentarian, the magazine of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

The Commonwealth Charter unites our community of nations under the shared values of peace, democracy, human rights, tolerance, respect and freedom of expression. No matter what our differences are, it is these values that drive our multilateral work towards securing safer, freer, and more prosperous futures for all Commonwealth citizens.

These values matter as much to LGBT+ citizens as they do to everyone else, and it is regrettable that in 2020 there are still 34 Commonwealth member states that criminalise same-sex intimacy. It is only with the work of dedicated and impassioned change-makers, both in government and in civil society, that the necessary reforms will be achieved.

We have seen encouraging steps forward. Activists and civil society groups have successfully challenged repressive laws in Belize, India, Botswana, and Trinidad and Tobago, and litigators have brought forward court cases in numerous other countries.

However, it is not just court judgements that are changing the landscape of equality in the Commonwealth. In the past decade alone, governments and legislators have introduced various laws to recognise and protect their LGBT+ citizens. Lawmakers have decriminalised homosexuality in Fiji, Mozambique, Nauru, Lesotho and the Seychelles. Mozambique and the Seychelles have also passed additional protections against employment discrimination, and Fiji’s new Constitution has banned all discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. A Civil Unions Bill was passed by the Parliament in Cyprus, and same-sex marriage has been legalised in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Malta. Malta has also outlawed damaging conversion therapy, introduced protections for intersex people, made it easier for transgender people to self identify, and improved adoption and IVF rights for same-sex couples – all in the past five years.

The pace of this change is even more remarkable when we consider that LGBT+ rights in some corners of the world have been going backwards, regardless of the legality of homosexuality. State-sponsored violence has seen gay men in Chechnya tortured and imprisoned in detention camps, the police in Turkey brutally suppressing Pride events, and police raids and crackdowns against the LGBT+ community continue to persist in Indonesia. 12 countries still include the death penalty as a maximum sentence for same-sex intimacy, and it is shameful that one of these countries, Brunei, is a member state of the Commonwealth. It was only after effective lobbying from civil society groups and Commonwealth High Commissioners last year that the Sultan of Brunei decided to extend a moratorium on enforcing the death penalty as a punishment. There is cause for concern about the treatment of LGBT+ citizens in a number of other Commonwealth countries, too.

It is vitally important that politicians are seen to be taking a stand against actions that threaten the rights and dignity of LGBT+ people, especially in instances where violence and discrimination have been sanctioned by the state. Parliamentarians have a key role to play in this respect. Legislators are uniquely placed to hold governments to account, provide a voice to the concerns of the people they represent, influence the national debate, and enact the laws that defend and protect LGBT+ equality. Parliamentarians also approve government budgets and vote on the funding for projects that can make a real difference to LGBT+ people in communities. For example, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office funds several civil society organisations in their work to reform equality laws in other nations, and the Department for International Development currently funds research projects through UK Aid Connect to support LGBT+ inclusion in the development goals of numerous countries. This work with civil society can make all the difference, as it is too often the case that diligent activists lack the resources they need to push for reform.

Linking politicians with experts in civil society is an important part of affecting change, as it is the grassroots organisations and community leaders who have a first-hand knowledge of the issues that LGBT+ people experience. This is something we have done in the UK Parliament, where in 2015 the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global LGBT+ Rights, which I co-chaired until last year, was set up to provide a forum for civil society groups to inform the work of Parliamentarians supportive of LGBT+ equality. The APPG has served as an effective unifying voice for Parliamentarians wishing to take a stand on behalf of LGBT+ people globally, and on multiple occasions it has secured debating time in Parliament on key equality issues. The group has also lobbied on matters of grave concern, for instance pressing the Commonwealth Secretary General for a diplomatic response to the developing situation in Brunei last year.

Working in this and other All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) made me realise the opportunity to mobilise Parliamentarians at a global level. While politicians in the UK have been generally receptive to LGBT+ equality, many elected officials campaigning on these issues in other countries are often lone voices with no forum to share knowledge and resource their efforts. That’s why last year I and other Members of Parliaments from around the world founded the Global Equality Caucus, the first international network of Parliamentarians and elected representatives dedicated to tackling LGBT+ discrimination, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. We work in partnership with civil society organisations, multinational companies, and international organisations to support equality campaigns and to provide a co-ordinated political voice where previously there was none. We also link up networks of politicians and civil society actors who wish to work on national campaigns or across borders, and so far our membership has grown to over 100 members across 30 countries and 6 continents.

Launching at the United Nations Headquarters during World Pride, founding members of the Global Equality Caucus signed the New York Declaration to affirm our commitment to ending violence and discrimination against LGBT+ people by holding governments to account and pushing for legislative change. Since then, the Caucus has also launched a successful Asia-Pacific chapter which has facilitated dialogue between elected representatives from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and New Zealand on LGBT+ priorities in the region, including the sharing of political knowledge and experiences of marriage equality campaigns. The Caucus is also helping to establish a national LGBT+ network in Canada, modelled after the UK APPG on Global LGBT+ Rights and the United States Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, and is co-ordinating with the UK Government to deliver an international LGBT+ rights conference in May 2020. This major event, which I will chair, will link Parliamentarians with civil society networks and Government Ministers from across the world.

The LGBT+ rights conference this Spring is a fantastic opportunity to set a meaningful agenda for LGBT+ equality work this decade, and will help to feed in to a manifesto for action ahead of the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which is due to be held in Rwanda the following month. We thankfully now have a precedent for LGBT+ rights to feature in discussions at CHOGM, after the UK’s thenPrime Minister, Rt Hon. Theresa May, MP expressed her “deep regret” for Britain’s historical legacy of discriminatory laws across the Commonwealth and urged other nations to overhaul their anti-LGBT+ legislation. It will be a missed opportunity if the leaders at CHOGM 2020 fail to reflect on what progress has been made since the previous meeting and on what more needs to be done to ensure the human rights of LGBT+ people are not ignored with respect to the values of the Commonwealth Charter.

Of course, the host country has a big say in the shape of the CHOGM agenda, so there is a question of whether LGBT+ equality will feature at all at the upcoming summit. Life can be incredibly difficult for LGBT+ people in Central Africa, and Rwanda does not have any legal protections for LGBT+ citizens. Yet there are reasons to be optimistic. Same-sex intimacy has never been a criminal offence in the country, a powerful distinction compared to Rwanda’s Commonwealth neighbours, Uganda and Tanzania. Rwanda was also one of the only African nations to sign the UN joint statement condemning violence against LGBT+ people, and a number of brave LGBT+ individuals are increasingly visible in Rwandan society, such as the popular gospel singer Albert Nabonibo who publicly came out last year.

There is an expectation among activists involved with the Commonwealth Equality Network that language on LGBT+ rights will feature at CHOGM 2020, if not at the main summit then at fringe events and more informal meetings. It will be a measure of how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go, whether politicians at the summit are prepared to engage with the language of representatives from civil society. We need progressive and courageous politicians to lead if we are to see positive and lasting change for LGBT+ people in the Commonwealth over the coming years.