Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Nigeria: Human Rights Watch Accuses Country of Rights Violation - AllAfrica.com

Muhammad AbubakarBauchi

Human Rights Watch, planetary rights watch domestic dog based in the United Kingdom have written to the Nigerian authorities urging it to step in in the lawsuit against 18 male people the Sharia Court in Bauchi is charging for indecent dressing and organizing same sexual activity matrimonies as the state is a signer to conventions against such as charges.

The 18 people were sometime last twelvemonth arrested in a hotel in Yelwa, dressed in ladies' garbs and alleged to be organizing a wedding ceremony among them. Both actions, dressing in an garb meant for the antonym sexual activity and same sexual activity marriage, are against the Muslim Sharia Law which the state practices.

The missive signed by the manager in complaint of the protection of the rights of gays, gay women and bi-sexual of the Person Rights Watch, Mr. George C. Scott Long said sensational and charging the people to tribunal violated their human rights, including their rights to free association.

According to the letter, which was addressed to the Federal Soldier Government through the Curate of Justice and copied to the Bauchi State governor reminded the authorities that it was a signer to two conventions on civil and political rights as well as the human and people's rights of its citizens.

The letter, which was tendered before the tribunal last hebdomad before it adjourned sitting indefinitely, drew the attending of authorities to the charter it signed on International Convention on Civil and Political Rights in 1993 and the African Charter on Person Rights in 1983, both of which let for people or groupings to have got free associations, saying arresting and charging the people as done by the Sharia Court in Bauchi contravenes these agreements.

The prosecution counsel, Yusuf Adamu who tendered the missive before the tribunal and said he could not give transcripts to newsmen as "it is an functionary written document not meant for circulation", said the 18 people were being charged for indecent dressing and organizing same sexual activity wedding.

The Defense Mechanism Counsel, Mr. Ralph Monye however expressed daze over the determination of the tribunal to adjourn the lawsuit without allowing him to see the content of the letter.

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Meanwhile, the state governor, Malam Isa Yuguda have directed the state ministry of justness to digest the missive and advice authorities on appropriate action to take on it before the adjacent sitting of the court.

The first and 2nd posings on the lawsuit last twelvemonth before the 18 people were granted bail bond were disrupted by mobs, necessitating subsequent trials to be held in secret and under heavy security.

The rights watch had maintained in the missive that it was fair in its work as it had intervened and fought for the rights of Muslims in some states by protecting the rights of Moslem women to have on hijab.

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