{"id":13229,"date":"2014-03-19T03:51:45","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T03:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/amnesty-international-awards-cameroonian-gay\/"},"modified":"2014-03-19T03:51:26","modified_gmt":"2014-03-19T03:51:26","slug":"amnesty-international-awards-cameroonian-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/amnesty-international-awards-cameroonian-gay\/","title":{"rendered":"Amnesty International Awards Cameroonian Gay Rights Lawyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

{{A lawyer in Cameroon has been recognised for her work to promote gay rights in Africa with an award from Amnesty International.}}<\/p>\n

Alice Nkom has spent a decade defending people accused of practising homosexuality.<\/p>\n

Homosexual acts are illegal in Cameroon and carry a five-year prison term.<\/p>\n

Ms Nkom described the award, which she received from the German branch of Amnesty International in Berlin on Tuesday, as a “prize of hope”.<\/p>\n

“Being gay in Cameroon is like being in hell,” she told reporters.<\/p>\n

“Permanent jail, permanent harassment, permanent violence and discrimination. From your family to the workplace to everywhere.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

The 69-year-old lawyer became the first black woman to be called to the bar in Cameroon in 1969.<\/p>\n

She vowed to continue her work despite being sent death threats and warnings from government officials that she could face imprisonment.<\/p>\n

The campaign for gay rights in Africa has been hit in recent weeks by a new law in Uganda which allows life imprisonment for acts of “aggravated homosexuality” and also criminalises the “promotion of homosexuality”.<\/p>\n

Africa remains the continent with the toughest anti-gay laws, with homosexual acts punishable by death in Mauritania and South Sudan and parts of Nigeria and Somalia.<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{{A lawyer in Cameroon has been recognised for her work to promote gay rights in Africa with an award from Amnesty International.}} Alice Nkom has spent a decade defending people accused of practising homosexuality. Homosexual acts are illegal in Cameroon and carry a five-year prison term. Ms Nkom described the award, which she received from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000051025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-13229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000051025,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13229.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13229.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13229.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13229.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13229.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13229.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000051025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13229"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=13229"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=13229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}