A/HRC/43/43/Add.1 accommodation are often discriminated against by landlords who refuse to rent to single or unaccompanied women for “decency” reasons.56 61. Women living with HIV/AIDS also experience discrimination. Although 1.5 per cent of the adult population in Nigeria lives with HIV/AIDS (55 per cent of whom are women), and despite the 2017–2021 National HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework acknowledging that stigma and discrimination are major issues, there is no national legislation explicitly banning discrimination based on someone’s actual or perceived HIV status. The Special Rapporteur received reports of extreme cases of discrimination in relation to the right to housing: HIV-positive women had been evicted from their homes and communities and left homeless as a result of the absence of emergency shelters or housing options. Female HIV-positive students had been expelled from university accommodation after reporting their status to the university’s health services. B. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons 62. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons experience extreme discrimination in Nigeria. The 2013 Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act imposes a 14-year prison sentence for entering into a same-sex “marriage contract or civil union” and a 10-year prison sentence for those who witness, abet and aid the solemnization of a same-sex marriage or union. It also imposes a 10-year prison sentence on persons who directly or indirectly make public show of same-sex amorous relationships. Twelve states in northern Nigeria apply sharia law and penalize homosexuality with death. Although the Special Rapporteur did not receive evidence of the Act having been implemented, it creates a climate of oppression. 63. The Act also violates the right to privacy in the home, as the terms “same-sex marriage” and “civil union” are defined vaguely and could include any form of same-sex cohabitation. While so far there have been no prosecutions under the Act, the law contributes to a social climate that provides justification for discrimination and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, including in their own homes. Human Rights Watch reported that in 2014, in Gishiri village, Abuja, a group of approximately 50 persons armed with machetes, clubs and whips dragged people from their homes and severely beat at least 14 men whom they suspected of being gay. The victims told Human Rights Watch that their attackers chanted: “We are doing [President Goodluck] Jonathan’s work: cleansing the community of gays.” The impact on the right to housing is clear in their testimonies: “The mob was going from house to house looking for gay people, and they had police officers with them. We could not sleep in our house that night; we had to sleep under a bridge.”57 64. The Special Rapporteur received reports of landlords evicting or refusing to rent to tenants suspected of being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. A deeply disturbing case of a landlord recruiting a group of men to repeatedly rape his tenants, a lesbian couple, in his presence, was also brought to the Special Rapporteur’s attention. The Initiative for Equal Rights, an NGO based in Nigeria, receives four to five complaints each month alleging the eviction of people from their apartments because of their gender identity or sexual orientation.58 65. Many lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in Nigeria are forced into gender conformity and isolation, not only publicly, but also in their own homes, which is incompatible with the enjoyment of the right to housing. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has stated that the right not to be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with one’s home and privacy constitutes an essential dimension of the 56 57 58 14 www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45169688. www.hrw.org/report/2016/10/20/tell-me-where-i-can-be-safe/impact-nigerias-same-sex-marriageprohibition-act. Canada, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, “Nigeria: information on how bisexuality is understood and perceived in Nigeria; whether bisexuality is distinguished from both male and female homosexuality (2014–June 2015)”, (9 September 2015).