Professional Documents
Culture Documents
own countrys record on human rights for gay people is far from perfect
(U.S. State Department 2011).
The
problem that Cameron faces is even more complex.
Colonial Britain imposed its laws upon the countries of the Empire without
regard, and often in direct opposition, to the will of the local people. Now, in 2012,
Cameron is once again seen as attempting to
enforce foreign legal standards while refusing to consider national will or culture.
A2 S Deficits General*
Aid conditionality doesnt have to be negative, the US has a model that will work
Dunne 12 (
Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012 recipient of the Harvard Law School Irving R. Kaufman Public Service Fellowship. He currently works at the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Dunne received his LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the Wrong
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
At an LGBT event held on 8 December 2011 at the UN headquarters in New York City, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch Kenneth Roth suggested that
while states should not necessarily withdraw aid where antigay laws exist,
the protection of LGBTI people might legitimately be
raised when negotiations are first taking place, as a type of positive aid conditionality.
Such a plan is
obviously not substantively dissimilar from Camerons Perth announcement. Indeed, in an article that so heavily criticizes the practice of aid conditionality,
it
would be more than a little disingenuous to now suggest that all the problems of neocolonialism
and cultural exploitation can be resolved by simply changing the point at which the conditions are
imposed.
However, if Cameron is resolute in his decision to condition foreign assistance on LGBTI rights, there may be some smallif only narrative-
relatedadvantage to imposing obligations that act as positive incentives rather than being wholly coercive in nature. Under a policy of aid conditionality,
leaders such as Mugabe and Mutharika can legitimately point to LGBTI rights as a reason that the United Kingdom is withdrawing aid
. This gives them
the opportunity to scapegoat LGBTI persons as the cause of the nations failing infrastructure
. Though
the difference is clearly subtle, positive aid conditionality may be seen as distinct
from Camerons policy
and more
akin to that of the United States Millennium Challenge Corporation
(MCC) (Council for Global Equality 2012).
Under
the MCC model, prospective aid recipients are asked to meet a series of indicators,
such as minimum
human rights standards,
before they are eligible for U.S. foreign assistance
(Council for Global Equality 2012).
Where a
country fails to reach its agreed goals, there is no actual monetary loss because funding has not yet
begun.
But if the indicators are satisfied, the country stands to gain a significant benefit.
In this way, the MCC indicators are,
in
theory at least,
a vehicle for strengthening the national economy rather than mere U.S.-imposed
values
that if not embraced will lead to a reduction in foreign support. Of course, in reality, there may actually be very little difference in the way the public
reacts to the loss of a possible future grant and the loss of a current grant because of LGBTI rights. But that is simply the nature of sexual rights advocacy, where
clear,
onesize-fits-all solutions frequently do not exist and where policy makers must therefore seek
to reach the best possible solution while also accepting that the final outcome actually achieved will often not
be perfect. The hope is that by applying the MCC model to LGBTI rights and incentivizing protections for sexual minorities, Cameron can play some small part in
changing the narrative of LGBTI rights throughout the Commonwealth. LGBTI individuals may come to be seen, at least by some, as partners rather than as
obstacles in building national sovereignty.
A2
SQ Solves the Aff
Changes already being made in skwo but, more needs to be done
Dunne 12 (
Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012 recipient of the Harvard Law School Irving R. Kaufman Public Service Fellowship. He currently works at the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Dunne received his LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the Wrong
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
The year 2011 was a year of significant advances for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) rights worldwide. In
the U
nited
S
tates,
Congress
finally
repealed the
discriminatory
Dont Ask, Dont Tell
policy, allowing gay and lesbian individuals to serve openly in the
military. In
Australia,
the government announced two important
changes for the issuing of passports: transgender
persons in Australia are no longer required to undergo sex reassignment surgery before having their
preferred gender reflected on their passport, and intersex people may now choose an X marker
if they so wish.
Finally, the governments of
the U
nited
K
ingdom
, Nepal, Denmark, and Finland
all indicated their intention to
introduce full marriage equality,
while in Colombia, the Constitutional Court gave Parliament until June 2013 to legislate for the status of
same-sex unions in that country. The advancement of LGBTI equality has not been universal, however, and
many grave human rights
violations continue to take place around the world.
Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human
Rights, observes in her recent report to the nineteenth session of the Human Rights Council that
in all regions, people experience
violence and discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity
(2011, 3). LGBTI persons
around the globe,
particularly in the countries of the Global South, are subject to legal sanction, physical
abuse, and in extreme cases, killing. While in some countries existing discriminatory laws and
practices are the relics of a more homophobic past,
2010 and 2011 were marked by a worrying increase in the criminalization of
activities once considered outside the ambit of the law.
Aff Answers LGBTQ CP
No S 2ac**
Conditioning aid doesnt work it cant solve the complexity of the problem
Warwick 13 (Bruce, april 1 Aid Conditionality and Sexual Rights in the Third Worldhttp://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/01/aid-conditionality-
and-sexual-rights-in-the-third-world/ // OP )
Moreover, it is noted that prior to Camerons announcement, LGBTI activists had been lobbying the Commonwealth Secretariat for a formal statement on the
incompatibility of the criminalization of same-sex sexual conduct with Commonwealth values. For instance, the notable gay rights activist, Peter Tatchell, had also
encouraged grounding conditions of aid on laws regarding sexual orientation or gender identity (Rao, 2012), suggesting that these official proclamations were
indeed a victory of sorts. Taking the above factors into account serves to reinforce a perception that the
positions advocated by Cameron and Obama were a success for the further advancement of sexual
rights. However, these initial perceptions are not necessarily the case. Rather, the statements made have revived the
debate on the appropriateness of aid conditionality as a tool to promote human rights, provoking different responses on the part of the affected and their societies,
as well as of human rights activists (Anguita, 2012: 9). These are more often than not highly discouraging of linking aid
conditions to such a divisive and complex issue, a fact that is further highlighted when one takes into account that Camerons
statement resulted in an opposing statement signed by over 100 African social justice activists from a considerable number of countries (AMSHeR, 2011) After their
emergence post-World War II, the appropriateness of using aid conditionality as a tool to promote human rights
has often come under fire. Donor governments have been charged with a lack of legitimacy and
accused of a form of colonialism, to name but a few rebuttals, and so it is little surprise that these
statements, and in particular Camerons, have provoked considerable debate and aroused substantial
concern for their effect on sexual rights.
-- XT No S Resentment
Conditioning aid creates resentment towards local groups only they can solve
Warwick 13 (Bruce, april 1 Aid Conditionality and Sexual Rights in the Third Worldhttp://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/01/aid-conditionality-
and-sexual-rights-in-the-third-world/ // OP )
In addition to arguments of colonialism and neocolonialism, aid conditionality, as addressed in this paper, has come under fire
for undermining and harming local movements that are working hard to improve understandings of
sexual orientation and gender identity in specific local contexts. It was acknowledged in the previous chapter that
Camerons statement at the CHOGM resulted in a responding statement from African social justice activists. This statement highlights, perhaps
to the surprise of Cameron, that there does exist a vibrant social justice movement made up of people from all
walks of life, working to ensure visibility and enjoyment of rights by LGBTI people (AMSHeR, 2011)
Recognising the existence of such movements is significant as it fosters the opportunity to consider one of the most straightforward yet
strongest critiques of tying aid to issues of sexual orientation or gender identity: linking conditions of aid to sexual rights
serves to undermine the local movements that are seeking to acknowledge and improve such rights.
In undermining these movements, said approaches to sexual rights are not only going to further
entrench discrimination but also increase persecution in a number of ways. Local tensions and intolerance
toward perceived or actual sexual minorities is exacerbated when it is thought that aid is being withheld or redirected in order to ensure
greater equality and protection for these groups. Peter Dunne acknowledges such a consideration when he asserts, by holding out
LGBTI rights as worthy of special protection, governments create resentment among other advocacy
groups, particularly those who have been struggling for years to promote their cause and who have
never been afforded the same level of international support (Dunne, 2012: 69). Moreover, a recent blog post by
Keguro Macharia specifically writing on the experiences of African queers has similarly stressed that
telling government agencies that money will not show up for a certain project because queers are
not treated well will most probably not result in better legislation, or, more practically, better living
conditions for queers (Macharia, 2011). Essentially, aid conditionality can be acknowledged as sustaining a distinction between
LGBTI people, and sexual rights as a whole, and the myriad of other human rights violations that continue to exist worldwide, a distinction that
is recognised to worsen prejudice and proliferate discrimination. Even suggestions of redirecting aid to civil society movements that are
working on LGBTI rights and equality, rather than complete withdrawal (Abbas, 2012: 18), have been subject to the same critique. Having
acknowledged the vibrant social justice movements, the statement responding to Cameron goes on to say that simply singling out LGBTI issues
emphasises an idea that these rights are special rights and are therefore hierarchically more important (AMSHeR, 2011). The issue with this is
further compounded when considering that because LGBTI issues intersect with so many forms of abuse they must
seek to create wider social justice coalitions with other human rights defenders, such as those
promoting sexual health and womens rights (Dunne, 2012: 69), something that will be made
particularly difficult if these groups feel that the LGBTI movement is being afforded special
treatment. What is clear is that not only does aid conditionality on this basis undermine effective local movements working on issues of
sexuality, but it also creates divisions among a broader human rights movement that will undoubtedly be
damaging for long term prospects of ensuring reduced discrimination.
Alt Causes 2ac**
Anti-gay oppression is awful but the idea that conditioning it to one country can solve
is a joke zero chance they solve any of the following:
A. Dubai
Kenner 11 (David Kenner is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Underground and in the Closet,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/15/underground_and_in_the_closet?page=0,4// SC)
Enough with Amina, already. The sock-puppet blogger "Gay Girl in Damascus," who turned out to be a straight guy in Scotland has captured the
world's attention -- but the real gay communities in the Middle East face legal and societal discrimination every day. In most Middle Eastern
countries, homosexuality is a criminal offense, though laws are enforced to varying degrees. And the Arab Spring, which many gay-rights
organizations hoped would bring greater acceptance, has proved to be an ambivalent blessing. The real gay men and women in Damascus --
and Dubai, Cairo, and Amman -- are facing more serious problems than confused Internet identities. DUBAI The law: The Constitution of the
United Arab Emirates, which Dubai is a part of, criminalizes homosexuality, in part because it's a violation of
sharia law. The reality: Dubai, which enjoys a reputation as the most liberal emirate in the UAE, has long sustained an
underground gay community. "Dubai is the best place in the Muslim world for gays!" said one young Emirati at a gay club in the
city. The authorities' tolerance for its gay community, however, has always been fragile. A club was shuttered
in 2001 for hosting a gay night that featured a transvestite DJ, while in 2008 police arrested 17 foreign men for allegedly being homosexual and
cross-dressing. A new police crackdown has raised gay activists' fears that the situation will get worse
before it gets better. On May 31, Dubai's police launched a campaign against boyat, the rough equivalent of tomboys. In this Gulf
subculture, rebellious girls sport "short pixie-style hair, wear more masculine clothing, sunglasses and watches." Dan Littauer, the executive director of
GayMiddleEast.com, a website that publishes news on LGBT issues across the region, saw the campaign as implicitly targeting Dubai's lesbians -- and as a reaction to the Arab Spring. "The Gulf is also reacting to the Arab Spring, and
not only politically," he said. Gulf states "want to have a moral attempt to define Arabness and democracy."
b. Lebanon
Kenner 11 (David Kenner is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Underground and in the Closet,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/15/underground_and_in_the_closet?page=0,4// SC)
LEBANON The law: Article 534 of the
Lebanese penal code criminalizes "unnatural sexual intercourse," and it has
been used to target gay people.
Lebanese gay-rights organizations have frequently expressed their desire to see the law annulled. The reality:
Bu
t Article 534
(like many laws in Lebanon)
is
only
sporadically enforced.
As the government looks the other way,
gay culture has
flourished in Lebanon
-- so much so that the New York Times travel section recently dubbed Beirut the "Provincetown of the Middle East."
A
flourishing online gay community also exists in Lebanon.
Bekhsoos, the self-described "queer Arab magazine," has published
weekly since September 2009. Two of its most popular articles have been an evisceration of Lebanese author Joumana Haddad for distancing herself from political
feminism and the story of a man who resolves to get tested for HIV.
c. Egypt
Kenner 11 (David Kenner is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Underground and in the Closet,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/15/underground_and_in_the_closet?page=0,4// SC)
EGYPT The law: There are no laws that explicitly criminalize homosexual activities in Egypt. However, a 1961 law prohibiting
prostitution was reinterpreted as a prohibition on sexual "immorality" and subsequently used to
prosecute gay people. "The law requires that the [homosexual conduct] be 'habitual' -- legally taken to mean
that it must have been committed more than once in three years, with more than one person" to constitute a crime, according to a Human
Rights Watch report on the subject. The reality: Egypt's gay community has been forced to contend with sporadic
prosecutions, including a notorious case brought against 52 gay men following a police raid on a Nile boat cruise. Egypt's revolution,
however, spurred some hopes that better days were coming. Gay activists reportedly joined the anti-government protests that toppled former
President Hosni Mubarak. However, the increasingly frosty relationship between the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the youth
activists, the most pro-gay element of the revolution, has placed a chill on these prospects. Gay activists in Egypt are also wary
of the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's most powerful Islamist group. Essam el-Erian, a senior Brotherhood leader, specifically
excluded gay rights when talking about the post-revolution freedoms Egyptians would enjoy. Mohammed Badie, the top official in the
Brotherhood, also reportedly attacked Western countries for "allow[ing] gay marriage under the
pretext of democracy" during a political rally in May -- a mistake, he vowed, that Egypt would never make. The Muslim Brotherhood
is saying "that anyone who is talking about gay rights is extreme and ridiculous," said Littauer. "Some activists are very concerned."
d. Jordan
Kenner 11 (David Kenner is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Underground and in the Closet,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/15/underground_and_in_the_closet?page=0,4// SC)
JORDAN The law: There are no laws that criminalize homosexuality in Jordan. The reality: The restrictions faced by gay people
in Jordan vary based on geography and wealth, said Sami al-Ali, a pseudonymous Jordan-based blogger for Gay Middle East.
In the tonier parts of west Amman, the gay community is tolerated. While there are few official social networks for LGBT
people there, a number of gay-friendly cafes have cropped up. However, social stigmatization has
driven the gay movement underground in the rest of the country. The Jordanian gay community has
received support from Jordan's leftists, but it still faces hostility from the country's Islamist movements and from the
government. "A number of citizens reported sporadic police mistreatment of suspected LGBT persons," read the State Department's 2010
human rights report on the country. "There were reports of individuals who left the country due to fear their
families would punish them for their sexual orientation." The situation is worst for transgender people. Jordan's
bureaucracy does not possess a mechanism for changing one's gender on official documents. As a result, transgender Jordanians are
often left with the wrong gender on their official documents -- leading to much confusion, such as in this
incident, when two transgender Arabs were denied access to Egypt due to having the incorrect gender marked on their passports.
e. Syria
Kenner 11 (David Kenner is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Underground and in the Closet,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/06/15/underground_and_in_the_closet?page=0,4// SC)
SYRIA The law: Article 520 of the Syrian Penal Code of 1949 criminalized homosexuality as "unnatural sexual
intercourse," punishable by up to three years in prison. The reality: The situation on the ground in Syria, as described by
one Syrian author's account in FP, is if anything, grimmer than the law suggests. In March and April 2010, Syrian police raided four
separate gay parties held in private homes. "[R]eports indicated that dozens of gays and lesbians have
been imprisoned over the past several years after being arrested on vague charges such as abusing social
values, selling, buying or consuming illegal drugs, and organizing and promoting 'obscene' parties," stated the State Department's 2010 human
rights report on Syria. Unlike in Lebanon, Egypt, or even Dubai, there are few informal support networks for gay people
in Syria. Sami Hamwi, a Syria-based pseudonymous blogger for Gay Middle East, said a few activists are trying to change that, but they
face both societal and political obstacles. "There is no way for me to survive in my line of work if I come out," said Hamwi,
adding that he had lost two jobs already because of his sexuality. Hamwi feared that the "Gay Girl in Damascus" hoax would cause the
Syrian security forces to escalate their crackdown against gay activists. "I think they will not wait until the blogger is famous
or well-read to seek them out," he said. "[And] arrests in Syria means actual disappearing. No one can
hear or know about the arrested people, sometimes for decades."
Backlash DA 2ac
Aid withdrawal causes massive backlash against LGBTQ individuals Malawi proves
Anguita 7-9
(Luis Abolafia Anguita is member of Fundacin Tringulo, a Spanish LGBT organization wich works with development cooperation. Nowadays, he
is in charge of advocacy issues at the organisation. Luis represents Fundacin Tringulo in a network of Northern LGBT organizations advocating on their own
countries for a more inclusive and tolerant development cooperation and foreign policies for LGBT people. This network has been tackling the issue of aid
conditionality and better ways to engage with organizations from the South for more than 2 years now. Last working meeting was held last September in Madrid,
co-organised by Luis. Aid conditionality and respect for LGBT people rights, http://www.sxpolitics.org/?p=7369// SC)
In late October 2011, during the Commonwealth Meeting of Heads of State, David Cameron, the UK Prime Minister, threatened to reduce development aid to
countries that criminalize homosexuality. A few weeks later
, the Obama administration also announced that they would use
all available mechanisms, including measures related to development cooperation, to promote the
rights of LGBT persons
(lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans). These announcements revived the debate on the appropriateness of the aid conditionality as
a tool to promote human rights, and have provoked different responses on the part of affected governments and their societies, as well as of human rights
activists. In countries like Ghana and Nigeria, indirectly fingered by Cameron, the reaction was immediate. In Ghana, the democratically elected president declared
that he would never legalize homosexuality and religious groups took the opportunity of the British Prime Ministers speech to trigger homophobic sentiments in
the society. In Nigeria, the Senate passed a bill criminalizing same sex marriage, any public expression of affection between two persons of the same sex, as well as
the public defense of the rights of LGBT people.
The response of African organizations working with LGBT people also came quickly in the form of a statement
signed by more than 50 organizations and many individual activists have also publicly rebuffed the British threat. The main argument raised by these voices was that
the withdrawal of aid would cause a violent reaction against LGBT people, producing a rift between
LGBT organizations and other social movements.
The African statement also affirmed that the reduction of aid would negatively affect
LGBT people, a social group that already experiences high levels of vulnerability. The statement also emphasizes that the affected population should have been
previously consulted and that Western governments should seek more respectful ways of working with the African continent. The reaction of Northern
organizations working in the area of LGBT rights was more slow and confused, because they were trapped between the satisfacti on of seeing top leaders of some
powerful countries making explicit statements about their support of equality at the international level and the necessary caution regarding the impact of
conditionalities in recipient countries. Internal discussions amongst organizations of different countries kept evolving duri ng many weeks and no consensus was
reached in relation to the appropriateness of conditioning development cooperation to the domestic respect for the rights of LGBT persons. It should be noted,
however, that discussions about this matter is not new among Northern organizations. Since 2008, a specific group has been working on the issue and meetings
have been organized that included the participation of African activists who shared their point of view on conditionalities. The African organizations that signed the
public statement highlighted the case of Malawi as an example of how
international pressure and threats of aid reduction may
cause a witch-hunt against the LGBT people in the country
. In late 2009, a couple of men were arrested and sentenced to 14
years in prison because they celebrated their wedding. After an international campaign and various threats from countries like Germany, UK, Norway and Sweden
indicating that they may cut development support to Malawi, President Mutharika granted a pardon to the couple. Even so,
the UK and Germany
withdrew their aid,
claiming that the reason was growing authoritarianism and misuse of funds.
The Malawi government blamed
the LGBT people for aid reduction, thereby increasing the levels of homophobia and as a result, the
leading LGBT activists were threatened and had to hide or leave their homes.
The backlash DA blocks and comes before the net benefit
Anguita 7-9
(Luis Abolafia Anguita is member of Fundacin Tringulo, a Spanish LGBT organization wich works with development cooperation. Nowadays, he
is in charge of advocacy issues at the organisation. Luis represents Fundacin Tringulo in a network of Northern LGBT organizations advocating on their own
countries for a more inclusive and tolerant development cooperation and foreign policies for LGBT people. This network has been tackling the issue of aid
conditionality and better ways to engage with organizations from the South for more than 2 years now. Last working meeting was held last September in Madrid,
co-organised by Luis. Aid conditionality and respect for LGBT people rights, http://www.sxpolitics.org/?p=7369// SC)
It is also necessary to more closely analyze the power dynamics behind development cooperation and impregnating the present relations between former colonies
and former colonial powers. David Cameron launched his threats to cut development cooperation to countries that do not respect the rights of LGBT people at the
Commonwealth Meeting of Heads of State. Perhaps, someone should have reminded him that the Commonwealth is a legacy of the former British empire and that
it is, at least, quite embarrassing to see a British authority publicly instruct the heads of states of former British colonies on what is or not acceptable in terms of
human rights
. Many of the problems currently experienced by
a number of African
countries have originated in the
policies adopted by former colonial powers, including the support given over many years to
dictatorial, violent and corrupt regimes.
It is important to reflect on the marginalization of sexual and reproductive rights in those
countries where homosexuality remains criminalized.
It is necessary to place the violation of LGBT rights in the broader
context of denial of sexual and reproductive rights.
It is not exactly a coincidence that in
those countries where
these rights are curtailed, women, children and LGBT people endure greater poverty, exclusion and
have less access to fundamental economic and social rights,
such as health and education. Therefore, in certain contexts,
the
main challenge is to work towards preventing the dominant sexual morality of prevailing, as a broader
strategy to defend LGBT rights. When we locate LGBT rights in the broader framework of sexual and
reproductive rights we can also identify how current debates around aid conditionality and the lives
of LGBT persons has been restricted to civil and political rights, ignoring the relevance of economic
and social rights.
As spelled out in the statement issued by the African organizations, which was mentioned above,
when aid is suspended
in the case of countries that do not respect LGBT people, the economic and social rights of the
population as a whole will deteriorate, particularly in the case of the most vulnerable groups,
including LGBT persons,
who are not sheltered by the neo-patrimonial social protection networks of many states.
Thus, those who are
supposed to be protected will be the very first affected by its detrimental policy effects .
-- XT Backlash turns the NB
Perceptions of aid conditionality are altered to empower authoritarian leaders, aid
conditionality seeks to break this down
Dunne 12 (
Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012 recipient of the Harvard Law School Irving R. Kaufman Public Service Fellowship. He currently works at the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Dunne received his LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the Wrong
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
Such conclusions may seem overly reductive and lurid to Western ears, especially when
they are used by authoritarian leaders to
justify their own oppressive governments.
They also overlook
the
fact that Camerons
policy
is not specifically addressed to the
weakness, or otherwise, of Commonwealth states but rather
seeks to help oppressed minorities within those states who
frequently experience grave psychological and physical violence
. Nevertheless, the conclusions do undeniably reflect
widely held
perceptions
throughout the Commonwealth, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, and
are important factors in shaping
how ordinary citizens view Western power.
Ironically,
a great many of the worlds current sodomy
laws directly stem from British colonization
(Sanders 2011). Of the seventy-six countries worldwide that currently prohibit same-sex
sexual intercourse, forty-one are members of the Commonwealth.
This legacy creates a particular challenge
for the British government:
How can it claim the moral authority to enforce LGBTI rights when many of the laws it is opposing
were established during the colonial period?
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared to be sexuality and homophobia
(Khanna 2011). Throughout the Commonwealth, even in the most antigay regions, there exist sophisticated networks of LGBTI advocates. These individuals
understand the traditions and cultural sensitivities of their environment and are best placed to affect real change at the local level (Orazulike 2011). While
aid
conditionality is undoubtedly intended to facilitate and enhance the work of these groups,
it actually has
the opposite effect. Aid conditionality ignores the importance of local advocates, suggesting instead that only the former master can bring the Commonwealth
nations into line.
Political figures use LGBT aid conditionality to distract the public from corruption and failing
infrastructure
Dunne 12 (
Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012 recipient of the Harvard Law School Irving R. Kaufman Public Service Fellowship. He currently works at the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Dunne received his LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the Wrong
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
Sexual orientation and gender identity are issues of immense controversy
in much of the Commonwealth,
particularly in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa.
Many people believe that being gay
is a Western concept, which
has been
imported by the United Kingdom and the United States
in order to undermine local values
(CSCHRCL 2011).
These
sentiments are often encouraged and manipulated by political figures as a means of distracting
public attention from corrupt practices and failing infrastructure. In Zimbabwe,
President Robert Mugabe has
described homosexuals as worse than pigs and dogs
(Human Rights Watch 2009, 10). The president of
Malawi,
Bingu
wa Mutharika,
has linked economic sanctions against his country to the question of same-sex marriage
and in this way has portrayed LGBTI advocacy as a question of national sovereignty (Centre for the Development of People et al. 2011, 8).
While he presents himself as a champion of African values, President
Mutharika has labeled gay Malawians as agents of the
West, responsible for losing the country vital foreign aid.
In order to stem the tide of state-sponsored homophobia, LGBTI
communities throughout the Commonwealth have consistently demanded that they be allowed to exert their own agency, to implement their own plans, and to
use their own voices to say: We are from the Global South, we have not been influenced by the West, and yet we are LGBTI. That is what can and does
happen at the local level, and the result is many small, yet important, conversations that help to increase knowledge and to reduce fear. The UK governments
new policy of aid conditionality is the diametric opposite. While some may praise Cameron for at least attempting to vindicate the personhood of LGBTI
individuals, most advocates see aid conditionality as merely confirming the rhetoric of leaders, such as Mutharika, that the UK wants to impose an LGBTI
agenda. It serves to make explicit the threat of gay rights to national sovereignty (Long 2011).
Aid conditionality also directly increases
the threat to individuals living on the ground.
As a coalition of Ghanaian activists noted in the aftermath of Camerons
announcement,
Cutting aid . . . due to homophobic laws . . . will not help the LGBT people . . . but will
rather stigmatize these groups and individuals. LGBT people will be used as scapegoats for
government inability to support its citizens
(Coalition against Homophobia in Ghana et al. 2011).
-- A2 Modeling Solves Backlash
Even if countries adopt this model, the backlash DA is still true
Anguita 7-9
(Luis Abolafia Anguita is member of Fundacin Tringulo, a Spanish LGBT organization wich works with development cooperation. Nowadays, he
is in charge of advocacy issues at the organisation. Luis represents Fundacin Tringulo in a network of Northern LGBT organizations advocating on their own
countries for a more inclusive and tolerant development cooperation and foreign policies for LGBT people. This network has been tackling the issue of aid
conditionality and better ways to engage with organizations from the South for more than 2 years now. Last working meeting was held last September in Madrid,
co-organised by Luis. Aid conditionality and respect for LGBT people rights, http://www.sxpolitics.org/?p=7369// SC)
In retrospect, the experience in Malawi, as the prime example of international pressure and aid conditionality to ensure the respect for the rights of LGBT persons,
is, at best, a bittersweet episode. From a short-term perspective, the action was successful: the Malawian president granted a pardon for the couple. However, the
medium-term effects have been negative:
increased persecution of LGBT people;
reduction of government funding, which probably will
increase poverty levels; the weakening of local LGBT organizations; executive power overriding the
judiciary system to grant a pardon,
a procedure that sets a bad precedent.
Whom may we ask for explanations on what happened? Northern
based LGBT organizations? Organizations from the South? The governments that cut off aid? I have written myself a press release, on behalf of my organization,
criticizing the couples arrest, and many other Northern based organizations did the same. Some of these organizations asked their governments to condemn this
episode explicitly. I suppose that many of these organizations contacted the reference group in Malawi, CEDEP, to ask about the appropriateness for them to speak
or not publicly on the matter, as I did.
From my point of view,
the main problem is the misguided focus on trying to
determine whether it was suitable to condition development aid to the respect of the human rights of
LGBT people.
I do think we should challenge ourselves to climb a step further and
try to see the whole scene
, to abandon for a moment the
detailed picture (LGBT) and
look at the broader
one (human rights).
In doing so we notice problems such as: the
incoherencies between development policies and foreign and trade policies of donor countries;
the power
dynamics between North and South and between former colony and colonizer; the systematic marginalization of sexual and reproductive rights; the division
between civil and political rights, on the one hand, and economic and social rights, on the other; a sort of disconnection between North and South based
organizations, as well as in relation to local agendas; and, finally, great
uncertainty in respect to the role that BRICS countries
(Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa)
may or not play in the promotion of the human rights of LGBT persons.
For
many years, organizations that worked in development cooperation from Northern countries have done their best to ensure that cooperation policies were
disassociated from foreign policy rationales, to attempt to eradicate neo-colonial biases and avoid using aid merely to promote the economic interests of Northern
countries administrations. As a result, in many countries, including Spain,
we have advanced in the direction of a rights based
development cooperation approach, designed as a tool to reduce poverty and promote citizen
awareness that everyone certain inherent rights.
However
, foreign policy has continued to serve national
interests, sometimes in frank opposition to guidelines adopted by the development cooperation
branch of the same government.
Spain provides a sharp and clear example of these contradictions. Morocco is one of the main recipient
countries of Spanish development cooperation, but it also receives specific earmarked funds to police the European Union border. These funds finance a repressive
apparatus that prevents people from black Africa from crossing to Europe. It is also important to call attention to the shameful agreement of re-admission, signed
by Spain with Morocco and Senegal, that allows for the expulsion of unaccompanied children from these countries. What is the rights based approach of this policy?
Neocolonialism DA 2ac
Turn the counterplan is perceived as neo-colonialism and creates a massive backlash
Warwick 13 (Bruce, april 1 Aid Conditionality and Sexual Rights in the Third Worldhttp://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/01/aid-conditionality-
and-sexual-rights-in-the-third-world/ // OP )
Persecution, discrimination and stigma against actual, or perceived, LGBTI persons are not simply heightened by the entrenching of distinct
and identifiable categories. It is asserted that the policies advocated by Obama and Cameron, and in particular Camerons
statement at the CHOGM, may reinforce and worsen persecution by encouraging accusations of
neocolonialism. Susie Jolly touches on such an argument when remarking that third world commentators denounce such ideas as
Western impositions on traditional cultures (2000: 80). Similarly, others suggest that homophobic rhetoric is effectively
deployed within nationalist discourses, enabled by a forceful anti-Western sentiment (Hayes quoted in
Binnie, 2004: 77; Sanders, 1996: 69). One can turn to an assortment of individuals who have quite openly denounced
such policies as proof that homosexuality is a Western construct, and therefore something that should
be wholly opposed, as a means of illustrating such arguments. President Robert Mugabe and former Presidents Daniel arap Moi
and Julius Nyerere are acknowledged as leaders who have labelled homosexuality as un-African and
merely part of attempts to use human rights discourse to justify to the moralising mandate of the
West (Engelke, 1999: 294-295). For individuals such as these there seems to be a sense that the colonial discourse of the
civilizing West comes to be replicated as the recognition of formal legal rights signifies progress,
modernity, and Western civilization (Stychin quoted in Binnie, 2004: 76).
Neocolonial dynamics mean the CP cant solve any K-based net benefit
Anguita 7-9
(Luis Abolafia Anguita is member of Fundacin Tringulo, a Spanish LGBT organization wich works with development cooperation. Nowadays, he
is in charge of advocacy issues at the organisation. Luis represents Fundacin Tringulo in a network of Northern LGBT organizations advocating on their own
countries for a more inclusive and tolerant development cooperation and foreign policies for LGBT people. This network has been tackling the issue of aid
conditionality and better ways to engage with organizations from the South for more than 2 years now. Last working meeting was held last September in Madrid,
co-organised by Luis. Aid conditionality and respect for LGBT people rights, http://www.sxpolitics.org/?p=7369// SC)
Another more general problem is the insufficient communication between North and South based
organizations and the divergent agendas between them.
Sometimes, because of our excessive zeal, organizations from the North
want to quickly respond to rights violations in other areas. Even
when consulting
Southern based organizations many times
we do not allow
them enough time to reflect on what could be the best strategy to pursue.
Furthermore, we must be aware that many
times
these organizations do not have enough staff, or most of the work is done by volunteers,
who find
themselves flooded with questions raised by hundreds of Northern organizations.
There are also times when we prioritize
making our own
governments and societies take action in response to the violation of LGBT rights in another country,
in ways that give primacy to our own
political agenda in detriment of the needs of Southern organizations. We must also recognize that we
have not reflected enough, across North and South, about the potential role to be played by the BRICS
as new actors in development cooperation.
India and Brazil are already performing a very important role in Africa and their development
cooperation budgets today match the level of funds channeled by Canada and Sweden.
A country like India
, where local meanings of sexuality do not
coincide with Western concepts and categorie
s can
maybe
provide support to LGBT rights in more flexible terms,
which can
eventually be more easily understood by certain African governments. Regarding Brazil, despite recent and worrying setbacks, the existence of a vibrant civil
society is a potential platform to enable the state to start promoting i
nternationally sexual and reproductive rights t
hat are formally
guaranteed at the domestic level.
Organizations from both North and South working in the realm of human rights
of LGBT people should engage in collective efforts
to push Brazil, as a leading Southern country, to contribute to the enhancement of
sexual and reproductive rights in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific. However, as far as I know,
no consistent strategy has been yet
designed by any organization working for LGBT people.
To summarize:
when we analyze more in depth the
problems and effects of aid conditionality as a means to protect human rights, we realize that more
effective alternatives exist, such as:
To promote
greater coherence between foreign and cooperation
policies
in our own countries. To
prevent the continuation of neocolonial dynamics.
To situate LGBT human rights in the
broader framework of sexual and reproductive rights as to
circumvent the rejection on the part of homophobic
governments.
To
avoid the fracturing of human rights through the prioritizing of civil and political
rights in detriment of social and economic rights.
To ensure a constant flow of communication between North and South based
organizations engaged in LGBT rights work. To subordinate the interests of Northern organizations to definitions and strategies of South based organizations. To
develop a common strategy aimed at persuading some BRICS countries
to more fully engage
in the global
promotion of the rights of LGBT people.
-- Framing Issue Consultation
Even if aid conditionality is good, prior consultation and coordination with the
effected nation is vital
Anguita 7-9
(Luis Abolafia Anguita is member of Fundacin Tringulo, a Spanish LGBT organization wich works with development cooperation. Nowadays, he
is in charge of advocacy issues at the organisation. Luis represents Fundacin Tringulo in a network of Northern LGBT organizations advocating on their own
countries for a more inclusive and tolerant development cooperation and foreign policies for LGBT people. This network has been tackling the issue of aid
conditionality and better ways to engage with organizations from the South for more than 2 years now. Last working meeting was held last September in Madrid,
co-organised by Luis. Aid conditionality and respect for LGBT people rights, http://www.sxpolitics.org/?p=7369// SC)
And other ideas may be also added such as: The freezing of assets, bank accounts and adoption of
travel bans in the case of leaders proved responsible for the systematic violations of the rights of LGBT
people. To ensure the control of North based organizations that are
providing funds to fuel intolerance against LGBT people
in the
South, there
including criminal and economic sanctions
when necessary. More funds to support the work LGBT organizations in Southern
countries
. To promote and increase networking among organizations that provide support to
South based
LGBT rights initiatives. To promote accountability and juridical safety in regard to the relationship
between donor and recipient countries.
This would imply negotiating new agreements including specific provisions concerning the respect
for the rights of LGBT persons, not imposing then overnight.
To require donour countries to include LGBT organizations on
every consultation forum with civil society regarding development cooperation agreements. To invest
more funds in the implementation of accountability mechanisms
in recipient countries as to ensure that local civil society
organizations, including those working with LGBT people, are able
to hold their government accountable. It is quite evident
that many positions exist among
Northern
LGBT organizations
as well as among organizations based in the South, I would say
in regard to the appropriateness of aid conditionality as a tool to promote the rights of LGBT people.
However, a significant number of Northern LGBT organizations share common ideas in relation to this matter, which resulted from our joint work and reflection
about what conditions must be advocated before resorting to
aid
conditionality. These
conditions include
: the rule of always
consult
ing with
organizations working with LGBT rights in the country where violations have occurred before
requesting our governments to take any measure;
to always make sure that
if aid conditionality is eventually
adopted that it is linked to a broader human rights frame; to recall that LGBT people may be the
victims of backlashes and warn donor governments of these risks; always consider the redeployment
of funds as an alternative to the suspension of aid
(although this is not feasible when aid comes in the form of state budget
support)
.
I left to the very end the thorny problem that arises whenever we talk about LGBT peoples rights, which is: the clash between cultural relativism,
affirming that not all rights are applicable in all cultures, and universalism, arguing that human rights are inherent to all people. Fundamentally this is the kernel of
the question and it will remain so. Meanwhile Northern states will continue to misuse the language of rights as an excuse to impose their own values and, most
principally, their interests
. This makes it crucial
for Southern organizations
to address LGBT rights in their own cultural
references and language. Southern organizations must teach Northern based organizations how to do
rights work under the conditions in which they live and claim rights, in the same way as they have
taught us how to more fully understand the limits and caveats of aid conditionality.
-- Framing Issue White Mans Burden
Aid conditionality is a tool used to promote the 21
st
century white mans burden
Dunne 12 (
Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012 recipient of the Harvard Law School Irving R. Kaufman Public Service Fellowship. He currently works at the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Dunne received his LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the Wrong
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
Aid conditionality often can appear as patronizing to both the target country and local LGBTI
advocates.
Speaking to Andrew Marr, Cameron sought to explain his new policy as countries being on a journey and
it being up to us
[Britain]
to help them along that journey
(BBC 2011). While the UK government, as a member of the global community, h
as an obligation
to ensure respect for human rights,
Camerons
choice of language
is unfortunate. In suggesting
that the
Commonwealt
h nations need
British
help,
the prime minister
evokes memories of the old colonial justification of
saving the savage native from himselfa kind of twenty-first century White mans burden.
He
ignores the
possibility that Commonwealth
nations will be able to rationally debate the question of LGBTI
rights
without British intervention. He also
ignores the possibility that there might *already+ be local movements,
dialogues and activisms around ther its own foreign and domestic policy agendas,
even if that is to the
detriment of other countries. Bowden Mbanje and Darlington Mahuku, writing in the Zimbabwean Herald Online on 18 November 2011, argue that Camerons
announcement
represents nothing more than a camouflaging tendency of the foreign aid regime used by
the Western powers to create governance structures that are conducive for the exploitation and
external control of weak
African
states.
-- Framing Issue Speaking for Others
Aid conditionality fails to appreciate the sensitivity of sexual politics, we cant speak
for their experiences
Dunne 12 (
Peter Dunne is a 2011-2012 recipient of the Harvard Law School Irving R. Kaufman Public Service Fellowship. He currently works at the
International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Dunne received his LLM from Harvard Law School in 2011, LGBTI Rights and the Wrong
Way to Give Aid, http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic967331.files/Dunne.pdf,//
SC)
In the months since the Perth meeting, much has been written and said about Camerons announcement.
Politicians and advocates
from the
Global North and South have weighed in on the
possible merits and potential pitfalls of aid conditionality, both
with regard to the promotion of human rights generally and of sexual orientation and gender
identity more specifically. Even assuming that Cameron genuinely desires to assist the LGBTI community in the Global South (an assumption
that is controversial among advocates
), the path
his government has chosen to adopt
is troubling. The decision to unilaterally
impose aid conditionality, without considering the impact
it will have on advocacy in affected countries,
fails to
appreciate the sensitivity of sexual politics in many parts of the Commonwealth and shows that
Cameron is out of touch with the lived experiences of the very people he is purporting to help.
Western Sexuality Turn 2ac
Turn imposing Western notions of sexuality marginalizes individuals
Warwick 13 (Bruce, april 1 Aid Conditionality and Sexual Rights in the Third Worldhttp://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/01/aid-conditionality-
and-sexual-rights-in-the-third-world/ // OP )
One of the central accusations consistently levelled both at the policy of tying aid to sexual rights and at
international human rights discourse associated with sexual rights more broadly is that it is
fundamentally flawed as a result of being based upon an understanding of sexual orientation and
gender identity that is inherently Western. The most notable aspect of these suggestions is the idea of
identity and in particular the assumption of the existence of set categories of, for example, gay,
lesbian or straight that are fundamentally static and coherent. As Aeyal Gross, when discussing contemporary
international human rights law and sexual rights, notes, the Yogyakarta principles, for example, define sexual orientation broadly but in a way
that maintains an understanding of sexual orientation as a distinct component in the identity of the self, determined based on the similarity
between ones gender and the gender of ones object of desire (2007: 130). As discussed, this is a document that has received wide acclaim
internationally, therefore illustrating somewhat the prevailing attitude that dominates current thinking with regards to sexual rights. While it is
undeniably important to recognise that homosexual behaviour has been observed in virtually all cultures throughout recorded history (Rao,
2010: 173), the expression of sexuality through personal identity categories, such as LGBTI, is very much
a culturally specific development associated with the West. Today, there undoubtedly exists some kind of a global
understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity that rests upon these assumed categories, perpetuated in international human rights
institutions, and demonstrated in documents such as the Yogyakarta principles and in policy statements such as those by Cameron and Obama.
While this expression of sexuality into specific categories may have initially helped (and perhaps continues to
help) sexual rights achieve a more prominent position in international human rights discourse, it is also
a factor that many argue is problematic when applied locally in contexts whose cultures are not
rooted in the West.
The problems of an approach so influenced by notions of fixed identities are manifold. A considerable difficulty raised is that these Western
sexual categories fail to encapsulate the complexity of cartographies of acts, identities and
communities outside the west (King quoted in Binnie, 2004: 79). Comparably Judith Butler, having written extensively on issues
concerning gender and sexuality, expresses this problem by stating, if one is a woman, that is surely not all one is; the term fails to be
exhaustive because gender is not always constituted coherently or consistently in different historical contexts, and because gender intersects
with racial, class, ethnic, sexual, and regional modalities of discursively constituted identities (1990: 4). One can interchange woman with
homosexual man, lesbian, or indeed any other supposed category associated with sexuality, and make similar assertions. By pursuing an
understanding of sexual orientation and gender identity that revolves around the binaries of gay or
straight, states such as the UK or US, as well as the international human rights framework as a whole, risk
severely alienating and marginalising huge swathes of individuals, many of whom are not aware or
have not necessarily ever considered themselves within the supposedly Western categories of
LGBTI . Andil Gosine has highlighted these prospects of marginalization and alienation through the promotion of LGBTI identities in
international human rights discourse with regards to sexual rights. Gosine proposes that if one is lower-class, young, or a person of colour,
these categories are either less convenient, create anxiety by limiting the exploration of sexuality, or make it more difficult to negotiate ways of
thinking about further sexualities that are compatible with particular cultures of family and neighbourhood (2005: 12). Essentially, it is argued
that there is a real risk that, through the imposition of these particular identities, by Cameron, for example, putting pressure on a
state to reform laws around a specific way of thinking about sexuality, produces further
marginalisation in areas of sexuality, thereby highlighting the counterproductive nature of such an
approach.
This is an epistemic and ethical violence
Warwick 13 (Bruce, april 1 Aid Conditionality and Sexual Rights in the Third Worldhttp://www.e-ir.info/2013/04/01/aid-conditionality-
and-sexual-rights-in-the-third-world/ // OP )
This notion that without the influence of international human rights organisations, supposedly inherently linked to Western understandings of sexuality, there
would be greater sexual freedoms throughout the world, as well as in the Arab world, is one that has been advocated by various scholars. It has been argued, for
example, that the formation of such distinct categories and their subsequent exportation through policies
such as those discussed to local contexts outside of Western Europe and North America, has helped
both reinforce existing discriminatory laws as well as foster greater levels of homophobia that have
the effect of forcing sexuality back underground. As Andil Gosine suggests, words such as gay, lesbian,
homosexual and even heterosexual do not necessarily have a direct translation in many languages as
they are probably not apt descriptions of the ways in which sexualities are organised and experienced
(2005: 11). As soon as these identities are replicated in non-western local contexts, it allows
authorities and state officials to discriminate against particular individuals and put into practice
homophobic legislation. As Massad proposes, it is not the same-sex sexual practices that are being
repressed by the authorities but rather the socio-political identification of these practices with the
Western identity of gayness (2007: 183). Whereas before, individuals may have taken part in same-sex interaction, this was not done in a way
that forced categorisation into any particular identity, whilst the imposition of sexual identities through countries such as the US and the UK, it is argued, means that
there is now something more concrete and apparent that authorities can persecute against. Sahar Amer has argued, for example, that the imposition of
identities has essentially unleashed epistemic, ethical and political violence on the very people it
claims to defend (2007: 650) by creating distinct categories into which fits their supposedly fixed sexual identity, ignoring the complex reali ties and
lived experiences of sexuality.