State and Good Governance, said in Geneva, There was an issue raised on same-sex marriages, etc. It is true we do not have a law allowing same-sex marriages in our country, and that I say again, due to our own traditions and very cultural strong beliefs. Although activities involving same-sex do take place, but they do take place under cover, so to say, and like I said when I was presenting our report on the ICCPR [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights], that if one were to exhibit such a behavior in public, one could be, actually be stoned by the public itself. It is a cultural thing. It's not yet acceptable. So the government ... it would be very strange for the government to propose a law towards allowing that; so, it's just that maybe time has not come for us to consider such freedoms in our country. United Kingdom's threat to withhold aid In October 2011, at the Commonwealth Head of Government's meeting in Perth, Australia, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, said that the UK may withhold or reduce aid to governments that do not reform statutes criminalizing homosexuality. In response, Tanzania's Minister for Foreign Affairs and international cooperation, Bernard Membe, said, Tanzania will never accept Cameron's proposal because we have our own moral values. Homosexuality is not part of our culture and we will never legalise it.... We are not ready to allow any rich nation to give us aid based on unacceptable conditions simply because we are poor. If we are denied aid by one country, it will not affect the economic status of this nation and we can do without UK aid. In the Tanzanian Parliament on 11 November 2011, the Tanzanian Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda, responded to a question from an MP about whether the Government was prepared to lose aid from the UK. He said: You are not being fair to me as the government has already made its stand clear on the matter … but since you want to get my opinion, I would like to say that homosexuality is unacceptable to our society. We need to look critically on these issues. To me this is unacceptable. Even animals can't do such a thing. His statement is biologically and scientifically incorrect and non-factual, as homosexuality has been observed among thousands of animal species, including Tanzania's national animal,