A/HRC/41/45/Add.2
group20 and as such, prevention measures should include educational and behaviour change
interventions and greater access to condoms and lubricants. The Independent Expert was
informed by prison authorities, nonetheless, that condoms are not widely distributed among
the prison population as the authorities consider that to do so would encourage same-sex
sexual relations in detention, and would lead to those using condoms being rejected by their
family once they were released for having “changed sexual orientation in prison”. In
addition, information at the disposal of the Independent Expert points to the fact that
inmates’ access to information about communicable diseases and access to health services
is limited. The United Nations country team reported that a significant proportion of
inmates discontinued their treatment for tuberculosis and HIV when incarcerated.
56.
The Independent Expert met with a number of refugees living in the Maratane
refugee camp, which is 35 km from Nampula city. The camp was opened in 2001 and hosts
about 10,000 refugees, most of whom are from the Great Lakes region, East Africa and the
Horn of Africa. Refugees living in the camp are subjected to several layers of
discrimination. The population of the Maratane camp comes from countries where diverse
sexual orientations and/or gender identities are often highly stigmatized, sometimes
criminalized and punished with imprisonment or even subjected to the death penalty under
sharia law. In addition, a significant proportion of the refugees come from countries in
which armed conflict is taking place and where populations are confronted with high levels
of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence.
57.
In these circumstances, the level of prejudice and sexual violence that lesbian, gay,
bisexual and trans refugees face in the camp is much higher than in the general population.
Reports of violence are often not registered and even those that are registered are rarely
addressed by the police officers present in the camp. The Independent Expert was informed
that this was the result of a problem of capacity that affected the whole refugee population:
with only four police officers allocated to the camp, reports of abuse cannot be addressed
adequately. As a result, refugees hide their diverse sexual orientation or gender identity,
they become invisible for fear of being ostracized, abandoned or subjected to abuse,
including “corrective rapes”, by their community.
58.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
provides technical assistance to the Government to ensure that registration and refugee
status determination procedures are performed in accordance with international standards.
The Independent Expert was pleased to learn that, since 2018, UNHCR has started to
engage with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans population living in the camp, has provided
training to health-care providers in the camp and support to the refugees, together with
Lambda, is considering placing educational posters in the camp to sensitize the population
about sexual orientation and gender identity, and that it intends to formalize its cooperation
with Lambda to address the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans refugee population
living in Maratane.
C.
Discrimination
1.
Leave no lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans person behind
Health
59.
Mozambique has not yet identified disparities in health that affect the lesbian, gay,
bisexual and trans populations or integrated their health needs into its national policies.
60.
HIV/AIDS remains one of the major public health challenges in Mozambique. As
key populations, the provision of health-care services to transgender persons or men who
have sex with men is exclusively focused on HIV/AIDS.
61.
The national response to HIV is heavily sustained by external assistance, in
particular the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global
20
12
Fourth HIV/AIDS National Strategic Plan (2015–2019).
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