The Limits of lgbt Rights in Rwanda: International Action and Domestic Erasure

Abstract When African countries and lgbt people are written about, a lot of the focus is on elites’ use of politicized homophobias to target lgbt people. However, there has been significantly less attention paid to countries where governments do not politicize homophobia, but also do not legislate for lgbt people’s human rights. Rwanda is one such country where senior government officials, including the President, have declined to politicize homophobia, even whilst many of their neighbours were doing so. However, lgbt activists report that discrimination remains widespread in the country, including from state actors. Therefore, it is surprising that at the United Nations Rwanda has increasingly although not universally moved to supporting lgbt rights positions. Rather than assuming Rwanda has adopted these differing positions for coercive reasons due to donor pressure or because of officials’ personal beliefs, I argue the Rwandan government’s approach is a strategic recognition of the importance of Global South actors supporting lgbt rights. Rwanda’s government does more internationally than domestically, but this is still enough to differentiate the country from its neighbours, and this gives it power in the international system as a Global South government that is willing to support lgbt rights internationally.