Mauritius Begins to Correct a Historic Wrong Towards LGBTQI+ People

Credit: Collectif Arc-en-Ciel/FacebookBy Inés M. PousadelaMONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Oct 27 2023 (IPS) In response to lawsuits brought by LGBTQI+ activists, the Mauritius Supreme Court has issued two landmark judgments striking down the criminalisation of consensual sex between adult men as unconstitutional. Its reasoning turned upside down the argument used by anti-rights forces to attack LGBTQI+ activists in many African countries: it acknowledged that criminalisation is the foreign import rather than gay sex, and a relic of colonialism it’s high time to shake off. A damning colonial legacy As in so many other Commonwealth states, criminalisation of consensual sex between men in Mauritius dated back to the British colonial era. Former colonies inherited criminal provisions targeted at LGBTQI+ people and typically retained them on independence and through subsequent criminal law reforms long after the UK had changed its laws. That’s exactly what happened in Mauritius, which declared independence in 1968 but retained Criminal Code provisions criminalising homosexuality dating from 1838. Section 250 of this law punished ‘sodomy’ with penalties of up to five years in prison. Around the Commonwealth, same-sex sexual acts remain a criminal offence in 31 out of 56 states, often punishable with harsh jail sentences, and in three cases – Brunei, north Nigeria and Uganda – potentially with the death penalty. Even if extreme punishments are unlikely to be applied, as was the c...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Africa Civil Society Featured Headlines Health Human Rights LGBTQ TerraViva United Nations CIVICUS 2023 IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news