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The countries where homosexuality is still illegal

Jun 12, 2019

Botswana scraps law banning gay sex in victory for LGBT rights campaigners in Africa

Tshekiso Tebalo/AFP/Getty Images

An activist holds up a rainbow flag inside Botswana High Court in Gaborone

Botswana’s High Court has overturned legislation criminalising homosexual relations, describing it as discriminatory, unconstitutional and against the public interest.

The penal code in the southern African country previously stated that “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature” was an offence, carrying a maximum sentence of seven years in jail. “Acts of gross indecency”, whether in public or private, were also deemed a punishable offence, of up to two years’ imprisonment.

The “packed court erupted in cheers of joy upon hearing the verdict”, which is a “landmark victory for Africa’s LGBTQ movements”, reports CNN.

Justice Michael Leburu said: “A democratic society is one that embraces tolerance, diversity and open-mindedness.”

The case was brought by Letsweletse Motshidiemang, a 21-year-old student at the University of Botswana, and comes just a month after Kenya’s High Court upheld its laws against homosexuality.

Here are the other countries around the world that still criminalise same-sex relations, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association:

The Americas
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Barbados
  • Dominica
  • Grenada (male only)
  • Guyana (male only)
  • Jamaica (male only)
  • St Kitts and Nevis (male only)
  • St Lucia
  • St Vincent and the Grenadines

Gay rights are constitutionally enshrined in most of South and North America. However, there are exceptions, mostly in the Caribbean.

Last year, Trinidad and Tobago took a stand and rolled back long-standing sodomy laws. But according to The Economist, “the political power of Caribbean churches frustrates gay-rights activists”, and “Caribbean governments have sought to block regionwide efforts to protect sexual minorities”.

Europe

No countries in Europe have laws explicitly preventing homosexual activities.

However, activist website 76 Crimes notes that Russia “enacted an anti-‘gay propaganda’ law in 2013 prohibiting any positive mention of homosexuality in the presence of minors, including online”. Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine have similar laws in place, or have proposed implementing them, the site adds.

Africa
  • Algeria
  • Burundi
  • Cameroon
  • Chad
  • Comoros
  • Egypt (de facto criminalisation)
  • Eritrea
  • Ethiopia
  • Gambia
  • Ghana
  • Guinea
  • Kenya (male only)
  • Liberia
  • Libya
  • Malawi
  • Mauritania
  • Mauritius (male only)
  • Morocco
  • Namibia (male only)
  • Nigeria
  • Senegal
  • Sierra Leone (male only)
  • Somalia
  • South Sudan
  • Sudan
  • Swaziland (male only)
  • Tanzania
  • Togo (male only)
  • Tunisia
  • Uganda
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe (male only)

Newsweek reports that “across much of Africa, gay people face discrimination, persecution, and potentially even death”. Homosexuality is a capital punishment in Mauritania, Sudan, southern Somalia and northern Nigeria.

The future looks even bleaker, with Amnesty International warning that “legal rights are diminishing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people across the African continent”.

Asia and the Middle East
  • Afghanistan
  • Bangladesh (male only)
  • Bhutan (male only)
  • Brunei (male only)
  • Indonesia (in some areas)
  • Iran
  • Iraq (de facto)
  • Kuwait (male only)
  • Lebanon (male only)
  • Malaysia
  • Maldives
  • Myanmar (male only)
  • Oman
  • Pakistan (male only)
  • Qatar
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Singapore (male only)
  • Sri Lanka
  • Syria
  • Turkmenistan (male only)
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Uzbekistan (male only)
  • Yemen

In the overwhelmingly Islamic Middle East, it is quicker to highlight the countries that do not currently have anti-gay laws than those that do. In several nations same-sex relations are punishable by death.

Bahrain, Israel and Jordan are the only countries in the region that do not outlaw homosexuality. Even in these countries, police protections offered to sexual minorities are minimal and vigilante justice often prevails.

A number of nations in the Middle East do not currently have a stable government, and legislative protections of LGBT minorities have been compromised as a result. For example, Iraq decriminalised homosexuality in 2003, but the subsequent collapse of its government and territorial claims by the extremist Islamic State (Isis) group led to widespread persecution and informal punishment of homosexuals, including execution.

Meanwhile, Asia has a mixed record on gay rights. Many countries on the continent have never passed any form of anti-gay legislation, including Cambodia, South Korea, Taiwan, Laos and the Philippines, while Japan decriminalised homosexuality almost 140 years ago.

However, at the other end of the spectrum are Afghanistan, Pakistan, Brunei, Myanmar and parts of Indonesia, all of which have laws that carry sentences up to life or execution for homosexual activity.

Oceania
  • Cook Islands (male only)
  • Kiribati (male only)
  • Papua New Guinea (male only)
  • Samoa (male only)
  • Solomon Islands
  • Tonga (male only)
  • Tuvalu (male only)

Oceania is a continent of sharp contrasts when it comes to anti-LGBT laws. Six of the 14 countries of the continent have passed anti-gay legislation. Kiribati and the Solomon Islands are the harshest enforcers of these laws, with sentences of up to 14 years for homosexual acts.

“Much remains to be done to improve the human rights records” of Pacific Ocean countries “that still have laws against same-sex intimacy”, 76 Crimes concludes.

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