Yaounde, Cameroon Africa, October 13th (news.cameroon-today.com) – Steave Nemande, president of the human rights organization Alternatives-Cameroun, vehemently opposed the laws that view homosexuality as illegal and criminal.

Freedom for all – Birds from Cameroon – Freedom for all

Opposing the laws that penalize homosexuality in Cameroon Steave Nemande, president of the human rights organization Alternatives-Cameroun, stated that he was upset that most African countries including Cameroon view homosexuality as a punishable offence.

In some countries the act of homosexuality is criminalized to such an extent that the punishment can be as worse as long tenures in prison or even a death sentence in the worst cases. He strongly opposes this and feels that both in Cameroon as well as internationally barriers towards adequate medical and health care facilities for homosexuals.

Under Nemande’s command, Alternatives-Cameroun tracks any non conformance to human rights stipulation and offers legal and economic counsel to survivors of any calamity. Nemande a medical practitioner by profession also runs a hospital by name Access center which provides medical aid to homosexuals.

The hospital set up by Alternatives-Cameroun in 2008 provides medical assistance to HIV and Aids patients who belong to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.

The ages of prejudice, years in prison and criminal procedures have prevented many members of the homosexual community from accessing healthcare facilities and many of them do not even visit public healthcare clinics. He observed that it is a shocking fact that gays, lesbians and trans genders are not provided public healthcare or medical facilities that pertain to AIDS or HIV and this is sad because those are the communities who are at high risk for most sexually transmitted illnesses.

Since its founding in 2006, Alternatives-Cameroun has recorded cases of arbitrary detention for 23 couples suspected of homosexual conduct, and has collected 1,600 signatures to wards the cause of the Cameroonian National Assembly decriminalizing homosexual relationships.

Alternatives-Cameroun is the first NGO to oppose inequities based on sexual preferences and petitioned for gender identity to be given observer status by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.