In May 2021, two transgender women received prison sentences of five years each under the law that forbids same-sex relations. At least 27 people were arrested in Cameroon in the first quarter of 2021, and in a similar period this year, at least 11 victims of mob violence were themselves detained for alleged consensual same-sex conduct and gender non-conformity. While many countries with colonial-era sodomy laws do not actively enforce them, or do so only rarely, Cameroon actively enforces section 347 of its penal code, which punishes “sexual relations between persons of the same sex”, with up to five years in prison. At the same time, Mauritius’ Equal Opportunities Act 2008 protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation, including in employment, education, and accommodation. In Mauritius, three cases are challenging the constitutionality of a law that punishes consensual same-sex conduct with up to five years in prison. Activists have appealed the decision, but no court date has been set. In 2019, Kenya’s high court upheld that country’s sodomy laws, arguing that they were not discriminatory as the laws applied to everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. In 2020 Gabon abandoned its brief experiment with criminalising same-sex conduct when its parliament reversed a 2019 law that had criminalised same-sex conduct for the first time.īut legal opposition and challenges to these archaic laws are increasing, if not always successfully. Indeed, Cape Verde is a member of the UN LGBTI Core Group, a network of states seeking to advance the rights of LGBTI people within the UN. The law has a non-discrimination provision that includes ‘sexual orientation’ as a protected ground.Īll former Portuguese colonies in Africa have now decriminalised same-sex conduct. Judges on the Botswana high court had in 2019 said that these archaic laws belong “in the museum or the archives”.Īngola’s new penal code, revised from 1886, came into effect in January 2021 and no longer criminalises same-sex conduct.
The court found that the Penal Code provisions outlawing “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature” were unconstitutional as they violate the right to privacy, the right to liberty, security of person, and equal protection under the law, and the right to freedom from discrimination. In November, the Botswana Court of Appeal upheld a lower court decision to decriminalise consensual same-sex conduct. Although the examples are few, there has been some progress over the last year on the protection of LGBT rights in Africa. In most cases, these laws are remnants of colonial rule, and the vague wording of these prohibitions, such as “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” resonate with the decorum of that era. Of the 69 countries that criminalize same-sex relations, 33 are in Africa. The Ministry of Justice is revising its policy and approach to combating systemic gender-based violence in the country. In 2021, at least 24 people were reportedly murdered in bias-motivated attacks. South Africa, notwithstanding strong legal protections, continues to battle violence directed against LGBT people. In the first half of 2021, instances of violence against LGBT people in Senegal were reported by rights groups there, while police in Kenya came under pressure to properly investigate the brutal murder of a non-binary lesbian in Karatina, north of Nairobi. When it comes to the rights of sexual and gender minorities in Africa, the past year has been a mixed bag. But the same volume also highlights the ways in which sexual and gender minorities are marginalised by “African political, religious and traditional leaders”. The anthropologist Zethu Matebeni has parodied this uniformly gloomy view in a piece entitled How Not to Write About Queer South Africa. Many countries in Africa have poor reputations when it comes to LGBT rights.
Pride month is a time to reflect on progress but also ongoing challenges in advancing the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. In countries where it is possible, pride marches and parades are now ubiquitous, including in South Africa, which held its first in 1990. June marks the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots over the treatment of LGBT people by New York City police, which was commemorated a year later with a protest march. People on a bus among the thousands participating in the 30th Gay Pride event in Johannesburg, South Africa, October 26, 2019.