Posted by GAY.COM on
Gay rights campaigners are calling on Nigeria to update its stance on sexual diversity, after six girls were sentenced to brutal treatment for apparently being lesbians.
Gay rights campaigners are calling on Nigeria to update its stance on sexual diversity, after six girls were sentenced to brutal treatment for apparently being lesbians.
According to press reports, the girls, one as young as 12, were sentenced to 90 strokes of the cane after being accused of having sex with each other.
They were sentenced in the Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta by a local group known as Twon-Brass.
According to the South African Press Association, the girls were given the punishment after admitting to 'unspecified same-sex behaviour".
Those who doled out the judgement also warned that a girl who apparently instigated the sex was 'still at large". Their words have been criticised by campaigners.
Outrage leader Peter Tatchell has urged members of the UK's LGBT communities to protest to Nigeria's High Commission in London.
He has already targeted Dr Christopher Kolade with a letter urging him to adopt a 'live and let live" approach to gay people in the country.
"I urge you to call on officials to intervene to halt the planned caning of six teenage girls, aged 12 to 17, on charges of lesbianism," he wrote.
"The punishment of 90 strokes amounts to inhumane treatment, and is contrary to the UN Convention Against Torture 1984."
"It is particularly appalling that girls of such a young age have been sentenced to such a severe and cruel punishment."
'Ninety strokes of the cane will cause severe skin wounds, bruising and scarring," he added.
"I respectfully ask the Nigerian government to ensure the protection of human rights in all the states and towns in its jurisdiction."