Botswana Scraps Anti-Gay Laws

Botswana’s High Court has overturned a law criminalizing consensual same-sex relations. Under section 164 of Botswana’s Penal Code, same sex relations was an offense that carried a maximum sentence of seven years’ imprisonment.

Botswana decriminalizes gay sex in latest LGBT rights

The case was brought to court in March by Letsweletse Motshidiemang, a 21-year-old student at the University of Botswana, who challenged the anti-sodomy laws last year. In a written statement read by the applicant’s lawyers in court, L.M. said, “We are not looking for people to agree with homosexuality but to be tolerant.”

When the case was brought before the court , a lawyer for the government argued that the law should not be overturned because it reflects the values of Botswana’s society, and pressed the challengers to provide evidence that those values had changed. But on Tuesday, three judges voted unanimously to revoke the laws.

Delivering the ruling, Judge Michael Leburu said the laws were “discriminatory” toward gay people and violated Botswana’s Constitution, arguing that overturning them was a matter of protecting human rights.

Botswana joins Angola, Mozambique and Seychelles who have scrapped anti-gay laws in recent years.

The ruling comes weeks after Kenya’s High Court refused to scrap laws criminalising homosexuality.

Below are the top African countries with the harshest law on homosexualism

Top African countries with the harshest law on homosexualism

Uzonna Anele
Uzonna Anele
Anele is a web developer and a Pan-Africanist who believes bad leadership is the only thing keeping Africa from taking its rightful place in the modern world.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Join Our Newsletter

Sign up for our newsletter today and start exploring the vibrant world of African history and culture!

Recent Articles

The Lynching of Richard Dickerson and the Destruction of Black-Owned Businesses in Ohio, 1904

Richard Dickerson was an African American laborer living in Springfield, Ohio, whose lynching by a white mob on March...

More Articles Like This