What Does 2024 Hold for Minorities?

I hope it isn’t too late to say Happy New Year🎉

2023 came with its fair share of highs and lows, and we touched on some of these in our year-in-review newsletter. As we step into this new year, you can be sure that we at Minority Africa will continue to keep you up-to-date on minority issues across Africa and the world at large. 

To kick off the first Minority Roundup of the year, I’ll be sharing some already emerging news in 2024 around LGBTQ+ rights, Europe’s plans to find new countries for asylum seekers, and critical trends likely to leave millions in need of medical care, food, and shelter this year.

But first, in Nigeria, where the enforcement of the Disability Rights Act will finally take effect in January 2024. In 2019, Nigeria’s National Assembly’s former President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Disability Rights Act into law. This Act criminalizes all forms of discrimination against persons with disability, and offenders will be liable to pay a fine or face six months imprisonment. The Act would also ensure equal access, social justice, and inclusivity across various sectors. 

However, the legislation wasn’t fully implemented, but with the recent announcement from James David Lalu, the executive secretary of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD), the Act is expected to be in full effect in all states by January 16, 2024. The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Beta Edu, and other relevant stakeholders are key players in ensuring the smooth integration of this law across the country. 

Emerging stories to watch in 2024

The New Humanitarian

Trends driving humanitarian need in 2024 (and what to do about them

Here are seven key trends likely to leave millions of people needing food, medical care, shelter, or other humanitarian aid over the next year, plus some ideas on what governments, aid groups, or individuals might do differently so 2025 looks a little better. 

We publish this list against a backdrop of ongoing conflicts and violence – in Gaza, Ukraine, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo; in Sudan, Haiti, and Myanmar; and in so many other places where humanitarian needs are growing or have become a way of life for many. We also publish it with the knowledge that women and children, as always, will bear the brunt of the impacts.

Aljazeera

In 2024, Europe to hunt for new partners to offload asylum seekers

From Ghana to Georgia, Rwanda to Albania, the EU is looking for nations that will hold vulnerable people on its behalf.

Eight years after the image of three-year-old Alan Kurdi lying facedown on a beach in Turkey shocked the world, pictures of asylum seekers’ lifeless bodies washed up on the coast of Italy’s Calabria region in February once again stirred global outrage. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen responded to the tragic shipwreck just metres away from the coast of Steccato di Cutro by promising to “redouble our efforts”.

“Member states must step forward and find a solution. Now,” she said.

Yet as 2024 begins, activists and experts told Al Jazeera that 2023 has seen Europe reach for ever more drastic solutions to curb NGO search and rescue operations and outsource its border management to other nations.

Glamour

Feminist Manifesto: 11 things women want to see in 2024

At one point or another, most feminists have been informed that “Actually, women have never had it so good.” While there’s truth to that statement – most of us aren’t the literal property of our husbands anymore – true gender equality still feels far away.

The fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 serves as a painful reminder that our freedoms are hard-fought and easily lost. Earlier this year, a woman in England was imprisoned for illegally inducing an abortion during lockdown. While her sentence has since been suspended, it’s still extremely worrying that abortion is criminalized at all in the UK – not to mention that religious zealots are still protesting outside abortion clinics thanks to the new laws around buffer zones not being enforced.

them

What’s At Stake for LGBTQ+ Rights in 2024?

Anti-trans politicians will undoubtedly be busy once again this year, but LGBTQ+ activists and advocates have no plans to back down.

After a year of legislation that relentlessly targeted LGBTQ+ Americans, the community is already facing another potentially record-breaking legislative session in 2024. More than 500 bills were put forward in 2023 seeking to restrict rights and protections for queer and trans people in arenas, from public restroom access to gender-affirming health care, and LGBTQ+ advocates do not expect that historic pace to slow down with a presidential election on the horizon. 

Bootcamp

Embracing Change: Key Trends Shaping the Future of Work for People with Disabilities in 2024

As December is here, our focus shifts to the upcoming year. The unpredictability of recent years has taught us to expect the unexpected, yet certain emerging trends in our field are guiding us into 2024.

Trend 1: Remote/Hybrid Work and Increased Flexibility

The landscape of remote and hybrid work is permanently altered. The debate around remote work and office returns has been constant, with individuals with disabilities being prominent advocates for this flexibility. This demand for flexibility, long championed by the disability community, has gained irreversible momentum. 

Stories we’ve enjoyed reading

“My personal secret”: Accessing family planning beyond religious boundaries in Zimbabwe

Being part of a sect whose doctrine prohibits the use of modern medicines for any sickness, these apostolic women share how they are navigating family planning challenges.

At 15, Catherine*, a member of the Johanne Marange Apostolic Sect (JMAC), one of an estimated 160 Apostolic sects in Zimbabwe, got married to her husband of the same faith.

Three years later, she welcomed her first child, beginning a pattern of almost yearly pregnancies. Catherine, now 37 years old, refrained from seeking medical advice due to the gendered inequalities embedded in the doctrines of the JMAC regarding contraception.

The central tenet of the JMAC is encapsulated within their Apostolic text, known as “Umboo Utsva hwa Vapostori” (The New Revelation of the Apostles). The book is revered as a canonical addition to the Bible. According to their Apostolic book, the JMAC maintains a religious culture against the idea of contraception.

Uganda’s anti-gay bill is about everything but protecting children.

A quick scan of the new bill shows a much more lenient sentence for abusers and a vague description of what comprises abuse. In that sense, the only aim of this bill is to target adult homosexuals living their lives and loving each other. Uganda’s children are just collateral.

I first heard the term “homosexual” in 2009. I’d undoubtedly heard of it before but hadn’t given it much thought. It was at this time that talk of Uganda’s first anti-homosexuality bill began. When one of the boys in my class branded me a homosexual in such a hissy and mocking tone for being “girly,” I knew something was wrong. In fact, I took it upon myself to discover more about this “homosexuality” thing. 

What I discovered was a slew of misinformation, ranging from horror stories of ruptured behinds to gay pampers stories and the occasional HIV/AIDS infection story thrown in to amp up the scare aspect. Because I had no access to better information, I feared and hated myself and gay people for the longest time. 

Tanzania’s crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights: “The government is making [us] hide”

The tragic death of Mliembe Suleiman, an openly lesbian woman, alongside a series of arrests and sentencing, has highlighted the ongoing challenges faced by the LGBTQ community in the country.

On April 22, 2023, Milembe Suleiman, a 43-year-old Tanzanian lesbian, was brutally killed and mutilated in a suspected homophobic attack. Suleiman’s death has its roots in a long history of discrimination, which started with getting arrested in December 2017 for proposing to her girlfriend.

“She was married to a Rwandan man, but they separated due to abuse. She later married another man and had a child with him. They also separated, and she continued with her life,” Paulina Seleman, Suleiman’s sister, says about Suleiman’s challenges in the pursuit of a life true to her identity.