According to the United Nations, there are 30 basic human rights that ought to be universally recognized. Countries which criminalize LGBTQI+ people and harbor taboos against sexuality and gender identity, create conditions that deny LGBTQI+ people these human rights.  Seven of the most basic of  such human rights are highlighted:

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1. The right to life: No one, including a Government, has the right to end your life. This creates an obligation for the Government to take appropriate measures to safeguard  all human life, not only by making laws to protect you, but also to ensure that you are protected under all circumstances if your life is at risk. Instead many African Governments participate in the loss of LGBTQI+ lives by harboring laws and conditions that serve to license and encourage violence against gays, lesbians, bi, trans and queer people, fostering impunity to perpetrators of violence against LGBTQI+ people, allowing also for the participation of state actors.

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2. The right to marry and have family: Everyone has the right to marry and to have a family. The exercise of this right is closely linked with the right to respect for private and family life protected by Article 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Very few African countries permit or do not criminalize same-sex marriage.

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3. The right to equal treatment before the law: Every person has the right to recognition as a person before the law. Every person has the right to enjoy the person’s human rights without discrimination. Every person, regardless of sexual orientation, is equal before the law and is entitled to the equal protection of the law without discrimination. Every person has the right to equal and effective protection against discrimination. Merely by virtue of criminalizing laws, over 30 countries on the continent of Africa fail this basic right. 

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4. The right to privacy: Privacy is an essential way we seek to self-protect against arbitrary and unjustified use of power. All humans have the right to autonomy over their bodies and how they conduct their private lives,- privately. This is taken away when what YOU do in your bedroom or decide with your doctor, becomes the business of the government and its laws.  LGBTQI+ people in most African countries suffer egregious privacy violations.

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5. The right to freedom of thought, religion, opinion, and expression: Out of a long list of country conditions, LGBTQI+ people are robbed of these rights through accusations of promotion of homosexuality when providing peer to peer support and education, when reparative therapies are imposed, when restrictive laws are made with religious dicta serving as the impetus, and when one is persecuted for waving a rainbow flag, protesting for rights and equality etc.

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6. The right to work:  LGBTQI+ people are often prevented from working and sustaining an income for survival in criminalizing  African countries or those with societal taboos, when outed, exposed, perceived as or imputed to be LGBTQI+

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7. The right to education: Every person is entitled to an education without discrimination, which means that LGBTQI+ people who are exposed should not be expelled and nor should they lose their scholarships just for being LGBTQI+ .

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Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and personal security.

Freedom from persecution, access to education, health-care and decent living conditions

are all fundamental human rights.

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