A Cameroonian lawyer is risking everything to defend LGBT rights

Despite public shaming, threats and humiliation, veteran Cameroonian lawyer Alice Nkom is determined to defend the rights of homosexual people in his country.

The human rights NGO she runs, Redhac, was recently suspended by the government and is due to appear before investigators to answer allegations of money laundering and funding of terrorist groups, which she denies.

The 80-year-old says authorities are interfering with her work and believes she has been targeted because of her legal work in the LGBT community.

“I will always defend homosexuals because they risk their freedom every day and are thrown into prison like dogs,” she told the BBC firmly, speaking from her office in the city of Douala.

“My job is to protect people. I don’t understand why I say I’m defending everyone but homosexuals.’

Clad in a black dress, Ms. Nkom delivers her clear message in a measured voice that reflects years of thoughtful legal argument.

According to the country’s criminal code, both men and women found guilty of homosexual sex can be sentenced to up to five years in prison and ordered to pay a fine. Members of the LGBT community also face ostracism from their families and society at large.

As a result, Ms. Nkom was seen as a surrogate parent to some in her country who were open about their sexuality to their families.

The legal expert has children of her own, but hundreds, if not thousands, of others look to her as their advocate after working for more than two decades to defend those accused of homosexuality.

“She is like our father and our mother. This is the mother we find when our families have abandoned us,” says one of the LGBT activists Sebastien, not giving his real name.

A supporter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is incorporated into Cameroon’s constitution, Ms. Nkom argues that freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation should be considered a fundamental right that supersedes the criminal code.

“You shouldn’t imprison basic rights, you shouldn’t suppress them – you should protect them,” she says.

It is a struggle that has led Ms. Nkom to difficulties.

She says she has been physically threatened several times on the street, and says that when she first started working in the law, she hired bodyguards to help protect herself.

But her journey to becoming one of Cameroon’s most outspoken legal figures began long before that.

In 1969, at the age of 24, she became the country’s first black female lawyer after studying in France – a former colonial power – and Cameroon.

She says her then-boyfriend, who later became her husband, encouraged her to continue her education.

Her previous legal work involved representing the less fortunate and disadvantaged, but it was a chance encounter in 2003 that led her to become involved in the fight to decriminalize homosexuality.

She was at the prosecutor’s office in Douala when she saw a group of young men in pairs in handcuffs who did not have the courage to look up.

“When I checked the court records, I realized that they were being prosecuted for homosexuality,” she says.

This offended her sense of human rights, and she was very clear that sexual minorities should be included among those whose rights are protected by the constitution.

“I decided to fight for this fundamental right to freedom to be respected,” adds Ms. Nkom.

In 2003, she founded the Association for the Defense of Homosexuality (Adefho).

Since then, she has appeared in dozens of cases. One of the most high-profile in recent years was her defense of transgender celebrity Shakira and friend Patricia in 2021.

Both were arrested while having lunch in a restaurant, and later charged with “attempted homosexuality.”

They were sentenced to five years in prison for violating the criminal code and insulting public decency.

“It’s a hammer blow. This is the maximum term defined in the law. The message is clear: there is no place for homosexuals in Cameroon,” quoted Ms. Nkom.

Shakira and Patricia were later released pending an appeal and have since fled the country.

Since then, the situation for LGBT people has not improved. LGBT activist Sebastien, who runs a charity supporting families with gay children, believes things have gotten worse recently.

A song based on the popular mbolé rhythm was released last year with a title and lyrics that encouraged people to kill homosexuals. It is still widely distributed and regularly played in the most fashionable places in the country’s major cities.

“People attack us because of this song that glorifies crime,” says Sebastian.

LGBT people are supposed to hide their sexual identity, but “some people set traps to approach us and attack us or report us to the police,” he says.

Ms Nkom says that when Brenda Biya, the daughter of President Paul Biya, came out publicly last year as a lesbian, she thought it might help change the law.

Ms. Biya, who spends most of her time outside Cameroon, was she hopes her openness can make a difference at home.

Ms. Nkom senses an opportunity. “I use Brenda’s case as a precedent. Now I have a case on which I can challenge the president,” she says.

The lawyer also asked Ms. Biya to do more for the cause of the LGBT community in Cameroon.

“Brenda hasn’t responded to me yet since I made the statement to the media, but I know she will.”

But for now, she will continue her legal work.

She sees the latest attempt to limit her efforts as another obstacle – certainly not enough force her to end the battle she has been waging since 2003.