A 2012 Freedom House report described Equatorial Guinea as one of ‘the world’s most repressive societies’. It describes Equatorial Guinea as having a ‘deplorable human rights record’ and one of the highest levels of corruption in the world. The country has severely limited freedoms of assembly and association, nongovernmental organisations are restricted and rarely focus on civil and political rights, and the partisan judiciary and security forces provide little protection under the law. The report accused the Obiang regime of ‘widespread human rights abuses, including torture, detention of political opponents, and extrajudicial killings’.

The U.S. Secretary of State 2012 Country Report on Human Rights Practices notes that ‘societal stigmatisation and traditional discrimination’ against homosexual men and women continues to be a problem and that ‘the government made little effort to combat it.’ The report suggests that this stigmatisation explains the lack of acceptance for ‘LGBT lifestyles’, an absence of active organisations supporting the LGBTI community, and a likely underreporting of abuse.

In its national report to the UN Human Rights Council as part of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the government of Equatorial Guinea is reported (in 2017) to note that, [w]ith regard to the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, heterosexuality and homosexuality are considered on an equal footing in Equatorial Guinea. The working paper from the Ministry of Health, which addresses sexual and reproductive rights, stipulates that all persons are entitled to the enjoyment of such rights without discrimination as to sexual orientation. (UN 3 Feb. 2014, para. 32). The same source further indicates that otes that societal discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community was a problem in Equatorial Guinea. That “societal norms do not allow for the public discussion of homosexuality” and as such “homosexuality is not widely accepted”.

For more information, please see the report “Equatorial Guinea: Situation of sexual minorities, including treatment by society and authorities; recourse and state protection available to victims” by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

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