Dignity for the Queer African: How the Right to Dignity in International Human Rights Law Imposes Obligations on All States to Protect Sexual Minorities

Abstract

The right to dignity of sexual minorities has continued to be violated across Africa, necessitating the need to deploy national, regional, and global human rights to secure its promotion and protection. Human dignity is a central value of the international human rights normative system and over the last few decades, the international human rights system has generally accepted the notion that all humans are endowed with equal dignity. Although the concept of dignity itself and the scope of its application continues to be contested by states, human rights documents acknowledge the recognition of the inherent dignity of all persons without discrimination. Unfortunately, sexual minorities in Africa continue to be stripped of their dignity through acts of public and private humiliation; criminalisation of their identities under laws that specify penalties ranging from prison terms to the death sentence, and through hate speech and acts of violence. The application of the concept of human dignity to the protection of sexual minorities in Africa remains problematic in state law and policy. This article contends that, based on the state’s recognition and protection of the inherent dignity of human beings, all African states still owe obligations toward sexual minorities. To this end, this article examines the development of the concept of dignity in Western thought and its subsequent impact on international human rights law. It also teases out the meaning of dignity in international human rights law under global and regional jurisprudence with a view to highlighting the obligations of African states towards sexual minorities.