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ABSTRACT
Human rights discourse in health advocacy is largely correlated with experiences of vulnerability, marginalisation and discrimination, with the global story of HIV activism the most visible example. In a domestic context where culture, consensus and belonging are highly valued, both human rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people face critiques of being foreign, un-African, new, individualistic and threatening to tradition. Why, when and how do civil society actors draw on human rights to advocate for LGBTI health in relation to HIV in Botswana? I examine this paradox through a case study of the key civil society actor in this sector. I argue that while formal structures and belief shape why the group engages with human rights, when and how human rights are invoked is shaped by perceptions of threat, cultural context, and belonging.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Kristi Heather Kenyon is an Assistant Professor in the Human Rights programme at the University of Winnipeg's Global College and a CIFAR-Azrieli Global Scholar with the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research's Successful Societies Program. She conducted research and analysis for this article while a postdoctoral scholar at the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria. She has published on themes of human rights, health and civil society mobilisation in sub-Saharan Africa, and on innovative pedagogy. Her work includes Resilience and Contagion: Invoking Human Rights in African HIV Advocacy (2017, McGill-Queens University Press), and pieces in The Journal of Human Rights Practice, The International Journal of Human Rights, Health and Human Rights, Politics, and the Canadian Journal of Higher Education. Her academic work is informed and inspired by a previous career in the civil society sector.
Notes
1 LGBTI is used here as it is the acronym in use by the group studied, in Botswana and in much of theregional literature. It is important to note, however, that the majority of LEGABIBO’s work, including that analysed in this article deals with lesbian, gay and bisexual health as well as health of men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women who do not identify with these labels. As a wide variety of acronyms are used globally, variations are made in the text where indicated in quotations.
2 This paper was initially submitted in May 2016 based on research carried out in 2010, since that time LEGABIBO has officially registered as an organisation and the legal landscape in Botswana has radically changed.
3 A relational concept that has been explained as ‘people are people through other people’ (South African white paper as cited in Louw Citation2006, 161).
4 See e.g. the Declaration of Alma Ata and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
5 For e.g. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Convention against Torture, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
6 The right to health is also recognised in CEDAW and the CRC but only in reference to each convention’s target population.
7 A term used in Botswana to refer to LGBTI people.
8 There are no specific laws related to transgender and intersex people.
9 Including nine current and two former staff members.
10 Interviews were also conducted with government at local and national levels (nine interviewees), UN agencies (one interviewee), other NGOs both domestic (four interviewees) and international (three interviewees), development partners (two interviewees).
11 I worked with BONELA from 2004 to 2006 as the Human Rights Research Officer.
12 Author’s interview, Program Manager, BONELA, 28 June 2010, Gaborone, Botswana.
13 Employee 4. 2010. BONELA, Gaborone, Botswana. Interview by author, June 29.
14 Mmolai-Chalmers, Anna. 2010. BONELA, Gaborone, Botswana. Interview by author, June 29.
15 N. Kumbawa, Doris. 2010. BONELA, Gaborone, Botswana. Interview by author, June 30.
16 Employee 3. 2010. BONELA, Gaborone, Botswana. Interview by author, June 29.
17 Mogapi, P. Skipper. 2010. LGBTI activist in Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana. Interview by author, June 29.
18 Often cited were problems in access to condoms for sex workers, discrimination by health care workers towards sex workers, inadequate access to information and prevention materials for men who have sex with men, and stigma and discrimination in all sectors in relation to these and other marginalised sexual groups.
19 Employee 3, 2010. BONELA, Gaborone, Botswana. Interview by author, June 29.
20 Kumbawa, op. cit. 16.
21 Mmolai-Chalmers, Anna. 2010. BONELA, Gaborone, Botswana. Interview by author, June 29.
22 Uyapo Ndadi, BONELA, Gaborone, Botswana. Interview by author, June 27.
23 Ibid., 19.
24 Author’s interview, Diana Meswele, Human Rights Activist, 13 July 2010, Gaborone, Botswana.
25 Personal communication, LEGABIBO employee 13 June 2019.