Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe chief: ‘We are not gays’

“Respecting and upholding human rights is the obligation of all states,” he said, BuzzFeed reported.

Addressing what he called the “new” human rights agenda being pushed by the West and referring specifically to the issue of homosexuality, Mugabe, who is also the current African Union (AU) chair, said: “We reject attempts to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs”.

Mugabe then, apparently extemporaneously, veered off script and added for emphasis: “We are not gays!” This feeling has since been fueled by Mugabe and other leaders in Africa who wish to create an external struggle with the West in order to consolidate their own political power and deflect criticisms for violations of human rights in other areas.

But he went on to say that “nowhere does the [United Nations Charter] abrogate the right of some to sit in judgment over others in carrying out this universal obligation”, rejecting what he called “politicisation” and “double standards”. “Confrontation, vilification, and double-standards will not”.

Read the full speech here.

Mugabe has a history of making homophobic remarks and as such his comments at the United Nations were met from the crowd with a few bemused chuckles rather than swift negative backlash. In 2013, he rallied against President Barack Obama, arguing that the U.S. president wanted to force Africa to “embrace homosexuality”. We don’t want war.

“The human right you have as a man is to marry another woman not to get another man to marry, we refuse that”, said Mugabe at his daughter, Bona’s wedding reception. He also stated that those of homosexual orientation were lower than “pigs, goats and birds”.