How Sociology Enriches Human Rights: The Case Study of Malawi’s First Openly-Gay Couple

For a long time the study and practice of human rights has been dominated mainly by law, with politics and ethics being other fields of major influence. But human rights is not a stand-alone field of study; it needs to be approached from a multi-disciplinary perspective.

Sociology is one discipline that enriches the study of human rights by showing how rights are constructed, institutionalised and violated. This paper attempts
to show how sociology adds value to human rights by way of a case study. The case study details the furore that surrounded the coming in the open of Malawi’s first gay couple.
Events in the aftermath of the jailing and pardoning of the two men show how gay rights are socially constructed in a context of a struggle between Malawian authorities who oppose such rights, on the one hand, and donors countries, who call for
acceptance of homosexuals, on the other.
The paper concludes that rights for gays may be institutionalised in Malawi considering the country’s dependence on donor aid, but that the institutionalisation should be in a less oppositional and threatening manner for the homophobic attitude of the Malawian authorities to be ameliorated.