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Total News: 47

Malawi: Buying, selling sex not illegal in Malawi –lawyer

8th September 2010
A lawyer and women’s activist, Seodi White says the country’s laws do not criminalise selling and buying sex.
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Malawi: MISA-Malawi dresses down Mutharika on media threats

1st September 2010
The Malawi Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has condemned President Bingu wa Mutharika for taking a direction towards oppressing the media in the country.
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Malawi: 'This country is run by me'

27th August 2010
Blantyre - Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika threatened to chase donors away from the southern African nation on Thursday and close newspapers for reporting that more than one million people are in need of food aid.
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Malawi: 'I will close down newspapers that lie'

26th August 2010
Blantyre, Malawi - Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika threatened on Thursday to shut down newspapers he accused of lying that up to one million Malawians will need food aid.
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Malawi: Mzuzu sex workers accuse Police of abuse

17th August 2010
Commercial sex workers in Mzuzu have accused police officers for abusing them, demanding money or sex when they are arrested on night patrol. Reports indicate that police in the northern city demand money or ‘unprotected’ sex from the women for them to be released.
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Pleasure of the President

31st July 2010
In response to an appeal filed by SALC, the Malawi Parliament has passed a bill (The Child Care Prot....
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Unreasonable Delay for Trial

31st July 2010
The Malawi High Court has refused SALC’s application for constitutional certification in a cas....
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Women in Malawi Denied Full Property Rights

29th July 2010
SALC intervened as friends of the court (amicus) in a Malawian case challenging the constitutionalit....
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United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

29th July 2010
SALC and the Centre for Human Rights, Education, Advice and Assistance (CHREAA) are preparing four I....
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Malawi: Should police suspects reveal their HIV statuses when arrested?

22nd June 2010
Disclosure of one’s HIV and AIDS status in Malawi continues to be associated with high levels of stigma and discrimination, one of the most notorious abuses of human rights in regards to HIV and AIDS, but should police suspects reveal their status when arrested?
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Malawi: One half of Malawi gay couple 'moves in with a woman'

9th June 2010
The pair were convicted under a law dating back to British colonial rule A gay couple who were jailed in Malawi have split after one of them moved in with a woman, according to reports.
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Malawi: Picking Up the Pieces in Malawi

3rd June 2010
Before the outsized international human rights outcry. Before the world had even heard of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga. Before their chinkhoswe ceremony - akin to an engagement ceremony although more complex - landed these two in prison, then convicted for "indecent practices between males," and finally sentenced to 14 years of hard labor. Before the President of Malawi reluctantly pardoned the convicted parties. Before all of this, activists were acting up in Malawi.
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Judgment: Malawi Gay Couple

25th May 2010
Here is the copy of the judgment issued in Steven and Tiwonge’s case.
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Malawi: Malawi gay couple appeal

25th May 2010
Lawyers for Malawi’s convicted first openly gay couple has said the pair has instructed him to appeal to the country’s High Court against the harsh sentence handed to them. Blantyre Chief Resident Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa sentenced Steven Monjeza and his partner Tiwonge Chimbalanga to 14 years’ hard labor after they were convicted for homosexuality charges.
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SALC in the News: Grave threat to rights of all in Malawi

24th May 2010
LAST week, a magistrate in Blantyre, Malawi, sentenced Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza to 14 years in prison — the maximum penalty — for “carnal knowledge against the order of nature”. They were arrested in December after holding a traditional engagement ceremony at a lodge in Blantyre. Since their arrest, they have been held in Blantyre’s Chichiri prison, notorious for its dire conditions.
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SALC in the News: Malawi Gays Had No Chance 

21st May 2010
LILONGWE, May 21 (IPS) - Rejecting the argument that the arrest and trial of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga amounted to a violation of their rights to freedom of concsience and expression as protected by Malawi's constitution, Blantyre chief resident magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa sentenced the two men to 14 years hard labour for "unnatural acts" and "gross indecency".
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SALC in the News: Gay sentence 'an outrage'

21st May 2010
A 14-year jail sentence with hard labour for a Malawian gay couple convicted of violating "the order of nature" after staging a same-sex wedding was yesterday slammed by African civil society organisations and other human rights bodies. The sentence, handed down in Blantyre yesterday, was not unexpected after the judge had convicted Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza earlier this week under laws dating from the colonial era. Crowds jeered the two men as they were driven from the court to jail.
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SALC in the News: Analysis: Being gay in Africa, a life-threatening situation

21st May 2010
In what may appear shocking to the progressive people of the world, a Malawian gay couple, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, was found guilty on Tuesday of “unnatural acts” and “gross indecency,” following their engagement ceremony last year. Their ordeal is but a sign of worse to come. The case has drawn worldwide attention as one emblematic of a widely held, deep antipathy towards gay rights throughout Africa. This decision comes as Uganda is considering a law that would have a provision for actually executing homosexuals in some circumstances. Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa Usiwa described the couple’s crime as “buggery”, ironically using language from Malawi’s British colonial past when the current law was written, rather than traditional sociological or cultural explanations of the charge and conviction. Usiwa said both men were guilty of “carnal knowledge” “against the order of nature” and that this “transgresses the Malawian recognised standards of propriety”. They may now face 14 years in jail when sentenced on Thursday. Malawi custom traditionally views homosexuality as either non-existent or something that must be suppressed.
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Press Release: African civil society outraged by harsh sentence and call for release of Malawi couple

20th May 2010
Jointly Issued by AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa, Southern Africa Litigation Centre, Centre for the Development of People and Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation African civil society groups, in a statement released today, called on Malawian authorities to repeal discriminatory laws criminalizing private sexual behavior, and release Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga. Monjeza and Chimbalanga were convicted of carnal knowledge against the order of nature and sentenced today to 14 years—the maximum penalty—in prison.
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SALC in the News: Gay Malawian couple sentenced to 14 years in jail

20th May 2010
BLANTYRE — A Malawi court on Thursday sentenced a gay couple who staged an illegal same-sex wedding to 14 years in prison with hard labour, the maximum term in the southern African country. Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza were arrested on December 28 after their symbolic wedding and accused of violating "the order of nature". They have been in jail eve
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SALC in the News: Malawi gay sentence slammed

20th May 2010
African civil society organisations have slammed a 14-year jail sentence with hard labour for a Malawian gay couple, convicted of violating "the order of nature" after staging a same sex wedding
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SALC in the News: Malawi: Gay couple found guilty

18th May 2010
A gay couple in Malawi was found guilty Tuesday of unnatural acts and gross indecency after a trial that drew worldwide condemnation of this southern African country's colonial-era laws on homosexuality.
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Malawi: Malawi court convicts gay couple

18th May 2010
A court in Malawi has convicted a gay couple of gross indecency and unnatural acts. Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, were arrested in December 2009 after celebrating their engagement.
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SALC in the News: Human rights campaigners attack Malawi gay couple conviction

18th May 2010
A couple in Malawi were today found guilty of gay sex, a crime under laws dating from the colonial era, in a judgment that campaigners warn could set back human rights across Africa. Steven Monjeza, 26, and 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga were convicted of unnatural acts and gross indecency, prompting anger and condemnation from activists in Malawi and around the world. The couple, who will learn their sentence on Thursday, could be jailed for up to 14 years with hard labour. Monjeza and Chimbalanga became Malawi's first same-sex couple to commit publicly to marriage at a symbolic ceremony last December. They were arrested two days later and detained in harsh conditions. Homosexuality in Malawi is outlawed and remains deeply taboo.
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Malawi: Gay couple lawyer mitigates for non-custodial sentence

18th May 2010
Lawyer of the gay couple, Steven Monjeza, 26 and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20 convicted for homosexuality, has asked the Blantyre Magistrates Court to mete a non-custodial sentence mitigating the two men were first offenders and their crimes did not victimise anybody.
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Malawi: News Analysis: Malawi faces two choices in gay trial judgment: donor money or sovereignty

16th May 2010
The judgement for the gay couple Steve Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga will be delivered on Tuesday. Guilty or not guilty verdict, you can be sure of a series of conundrums. Nyasa Times news analyst gives some insights into this maze in brief.
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Malawi: It’s Tuesday, judgement day for Malawi gay couple

16th May 2010
The Blantyre Magistrates Court will on Tuesday deliver judgement in a case involving gay couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and his partner Steven Monjeza. Chimbalanga, 20, and Monjeza, 26, made history when they tied the knot in a traditional chinkhoswe marriage ceremony in December. They became the first same-sex couple to do so in Malawi where homosexual acts are illegal.
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Malawi: Malawi prisons ‘death trap’

8th May 2010
Malawi prisons are ‘death traps’ for inmates plagued by overcrowding, malnutrition and rampant disease and that prisoners continue to suffer conditions which are generally poor; in some cases these amount to deliberate cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
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Malawi: Gay couple sent to test waters, to hell with donors – Kaliati

27th April 2010
Arraigned gay couple Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza were sent by international homosexuality campaigners to taste the resolve of Malawi, Minister of Gender, Women and Children Affairs Patricia Kaliati has professed. “Those people were sent. And those people who sent them to do that were just tasting waters, they wanted to taste government,” said Kaliati on Capital Radio Straight Talk.
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Malawi: Malawi President slams homosexuality

24th April 2010
President Bingu wa Mutharika has come out in the open to express disapproval of homosexuality in Malawi. The President commenting for the first time since the arrest and trial of gay couple, 26-year-old Steven Monjeza and 20-year-old Tiwonge Chimbalanga, said homosexuality was bizarre.
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