Civil society calls for rapid international response to the human rights crisis in Tanzania

CC Mathias Apnitz

News

Civil society calls for rapid international response to the human rights crisis in Tanzania

15 November 2018

We, the undersigned civil society and global key constituency-led organizations and networks, met as members of the Community, Rights and Gender (CRG) Advisory Group for the Global Fund CRG department, in Geneva on 1-2 November 2018. During our meeting, we received an update on the shocking developments that pose a direct threat to the health, safety and wellbeing of LGBT people, sex workers and other key and vulnerable populations in Tanzania.

We therefore urgently call on the heads of the UN and the multilateral health and development organizations, collaborating under the recently launched SDG3 Action Plan, to mobilize a coordinated response to the escalating crisis of state sanctioned violence facing the communities of LGBT people, sex workers and people who use drugs in Tanzania.

In an era of rising populism and heightened political repression around the world, communities most affected by HIV, TB and malaria, including people who use drugs, sex workers, LGBT people, with specific concern for transgender people, gay men and other men who have sex with men, are experiencing an escalation in state-sanctioned violence. Trends in state sanctioned violence, including gender-based violence, are fueled by pervasive levels of stigma, discrimination, and conservative populism. It has become all too common for political demagogues to use key populations as a political wedge to subjugate, oppress, debase, and belittle its citizens.

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