Rights Groups Urge Gambia's President to Reject Anti-Gay Bill

Top rights groups have urged Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh to not approve the new tough anti-gay legislation - the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act 2014 - passed by the Members of Parliament Aug. 25.

Gays and lesbians already live in fear in this West African nation as homosexual acts are illegal in Gambia. This new bill, if signed into law by the President, will impose life sentences for some cases of "aggravated homosexuality", BBC reports.

"A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality is liable on conviction to imprisonment (for) life," stated one section of the bill.

Some instances of the so called "aggravated homosexuality" defined by the bill include cases such as having homosexual relations with someone under the age of 18 years, "repeat offenders", or a person with HIV continuing to maintain homosexual relations with non-infected persons, Reuters reports.

The rights groups against the bill say that it promotes "state-sponsored homophobia".

"Gambia's national assembly and the president should not endorse state-sponsored homophobia. The proposal is a profoundly damaging act that violates international human rights law," said Stephen Cockburn, Amnesty International's deputy regional director for West and Central Africa, Al Jazeera reports.

President Jammeh, in the past, has been vocal about his strong opposition to gay rights. Apart from calling homosexuals "vermin", he went to the extent of once threatening to behead them.

He told the United Nations General Assembly last year that "those who promote homosexuality want to put an end to human existence. It is becoming an epidemic, and we Muslims and Africans will fight to end this behavior."

Last month, Uganda's Constitutional Court slashed a similar anti-gay law citing absence of quorum during the passing of the bill by the MPs.