Breaking News: Rwandan Parliament to Vote on Criminalizing Homosexuality.
The lower house of the Rwandan Parliament will vote on a draft revision of the penal code that will, for the first time, make homosexuality a crime in Rwanda. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has learned that the proposed Article 217 of the draft Penal Code Act will criminalize "[a]ny person who practices, encourages or sensitizes people of the same sex, to sexual relation or any sexual practice." Rwanda's Chamber of Deputies will vote on the draft code December 16, 2009. If the Chamber of Deputies approves, the draft code will likely go before the Rwandan Senate in early 2010.
Article 217 violates Rwandans' basic human rights and is contradictory to the Rwandan Constitution as well as various regional and international conventions. IGLHRC, the Coalition of African Lesbians (CAL), and Rwanda's Horizon Community Association (HOCA) will shortly issue a call to action to demand that the Rwandan Parliament withdraw this article. We urge the international community to act against this proposed law and support the equality, dignity, and privacy of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Rwanda.
This draft provision targeting LGBT people closely follows the introduction of a similar measure in neighboring Uganda, where the nation's parliament is currently debating an Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The proposed Ugandan law would prohibit all LGBT activism and organizing, would further criminalize consensual same-sex conduct between adults, which is already illegal in Uganda, and in some cases apply the death penalty.
Find out more information about LGBT Human Rights in Rwanda %raquo;
"This was a great victory for the natural law and the family and a slap in the face to the radicals," Austin Ruse, president of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute (C-FAM) was quoted as saying in a interview with Life site news titled UN General Assembly Eliminates Reference to "Sexual Orientation," Gender Identity. 
