Two cases involving the LGBTQI+ community in Namibia are set to be heard in the Supreme Court this month by a full bench of appeal judges. The first case to be heard on Friday concerns the recognition of same-sex marriages involving a Namibian spouse and a foreigner.
The second case concerns the right to have a family for same-sex marriage couples through surrogacy and adoption – and for such children to be recognised as Namibian citizens even though they are born outside of the country.
Equal Namibia, in collaboration with Sister Namibia, the Namibia Institute for Democracy and Power Pad Girls convened a press conference yesterday to highlight the importance of these two court cases for the LBGTIQ+ community.
According to Omar Van Reenen from Equal Namibia, it has been 22 years since the Supreme Court ruled against queer relationships in a landmark ruling – and since then, the Namibian government has continued to discriminate against gays and lesbians – even though that judgment, according to the Supreme Court, does not “suffice homo-bi-phobia and discrimination”.
Despite the “assurances”, they said, the Namibian government has continued to target and harass the LBGTIQ+ community by abusing public policy and violating the community’s constitutional rights.
A case in point, they said, is attorney general Festus Mbandeka’s recent utterances that the sodomy law should stay in use, as the majority of Namibians view sodomy as immoral.
According to them, this is a false narrative, as homosexuality in Namibia has always been exaggerated for political gains – but more importantly, it has also changed.
“A 2019 Afrobarometer survey shows that 64% of Namibians do not care if their neighbour were gay,” they pointed out.
However, they stated, the values, aspirations and ideals of Namibians are primarily stated in the constitution, which is hailed as one of the best in the world – and based on public perceptions.
This means public opinion should not dictate the adjudication of fundamental rights.
Furthermore, they stated, the AG said explicitly that the sodomy law does not promote stigmatisation, and that the protection of the rights of homosexuals cannot be rooted in Article 10 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right of every Namibian to equality and freedom from discrimination.
The AG said: “I do not accept that the impugned sodomy laws violate the constitution. On the contrary, the purpose of the law is to uphold society’s concept of dignity; there are certain forms of conduct so morally unacceptable that anyone who engages in them undermines their dignity and the dignity of society. So, in this case, if there is anything that undermines the dignity of homosexuals, it is that they choose to engage in conduct that is frowned upon by society.”
This is the absolute worst interpretation, the equal Namibia representative stated.
He asked: “What kind of society do we, as Namibians, want to cultivate with statements like that? Is it one where the State impairs dignity, humiliates individuals based solely on their identity and has a monopoly over who the constitution protects? Using the arsenal of the State, a few political elites continue to manipulate the narrative around homosexuality in Namibia, in turn reproducing the core tenets of the apartheid regime by shifting the emphasis from race to gender – to gender and sexual orientation?”