In Malawi, a nation that criminalizes same-sex conduct, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people face routine violence and discrimination in almost all aspects of their daily lives.

Police often physically assault, arbitrarily arrest and detain them, sometimes without due process or a legal basis, at other times as punishment for simply exercising basic rights, including seeking treatment in health institutions. Several transgender individuals told Human Rights Watch that the combination of criminalisation of adult consensual same-sex conduct and social stigma has had an insidious effect on their individual self-expression, forcing them to adopt self-censoring behavior because any suspicion of non-conformity may lead to violence or arrest.

Several gay men in the capital city, Lilongwe, married women because of the nation’s anti-homosexuality laws, to conform to society’s expectations, and avoid suspicion and arrest.

The challenges facing LGBT people in Malawi have been further exacerbated by the lack of clarity and divergent opinions regarding the legality of a moratorium on arrests and prosecutions for consensual homosexual acts, issued in 2012 by the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs.

In 2016, a high court order suspended the moratorium pending judicial review by the Constitutional Court. This uncertainty, Human Rights Watch research indicates, seemed to have encouraged private individuals to attack LGBT people with impunity, while health providers frequently discriminate against them on the grounds of sexual orientation. 

This report, based primarily on interviews with 45 LGBT people in the nation’s two major cities Lilongwe and Blantyre in 2018 and with Malawian activists, documents the human rights impact of criminalisation of same-sex conduct in Malawi.

Report by the Human Rights Watch