ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2012

The states which have adopted such laws are: 161
Bauchi (the year 2001), Borno (2000), Gombe (2001), Jigawa (2000), Kaduna (2001), Kano (2000), Katsina
(2000), Kebbi (2000), Niger (2000), Sokoto (2000), Yobe (2001) and Zamfara (2000).
According to Waaldijk (2011), both in 2006 and 2009, a legislative proposal has been introduced to further
criminalise homosexuality. The ‘Same Gender Marriage (Prohibition) Bill’ received approval in the House of
Representatives of Nigeria in January 2009, and among other things would make it a crime for people of the
same sex to live together 162 . Apparently, that bill did not succeed in becoming law.
São Tomé and Principe
Male/Male Illegal Female/Female Illegal
Penal Code of September 16, 1886, as amended in 1954 (Inherited from the Portuguese colonial era) 163
Articles 70 and 71 ad security measures on people who habitually practice acts against the order of nature,
stating such people shall be sent to labor camps.
For text of the law in Portuguese – see Mozambique section.
It should be noted that the country nevertheless signed the 2008 UN Statement against criminalization and
persecution on the basis of sexual orientation. 164
Senegal
Male/Male Illegal Female/Female Illegal
Penal Code of 1965 165
Article 319: 3. “Without prejudice to the more serious penalties provided for in the preceding paragraphs or
by articles 320 and 321 of this Code, whoever will have committed an improper or unnatural act with a
person of the same sex will be punished by imprisonment of between one and five years and by a fine of
100,000 to 1,500,000 francs. If the act was committed with a person below the age of 21, the maximum
penalty will always be applied.”
Seychelles
Male/Male Illegal Female/Female Legal
Criminal Code of 1955 166
Section 151. “Any person who –
a. has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; or
b. has carnal knowledge of an animal; or
c. permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, is guilty of a
felony, and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.”
161 See The Unfizzled Sharia Vector in the Nigerian State, available at:
http://www.nigerdeltacongress.com/uarticles/unfizzled_sharia_vector_in_the_n.htm .
162 Human Rights Watch (2009), Nigeria: Reject ‘Same Gender’ Marriage Ban. Available at:
www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/01/26/nigeria-reject-same-gender-marriage-ban)
163 See São Tomé and Principe: Oil and tourism threaten to treble rate of HIV infect in five years, available at:
http://www.irinnews.org.
164 See http://www.amnesty.org/es/library/asset/IOR40/024/2008/en/269de167-d107-11dd-984efdc7ffcd27a6/ior400242008en.pdf.
165 Text of the law is available at: http://www.justice.gouv.sn/droitp/CODE%20PENAL.PDF.
State-Sponsored Homophobia – May 2011
ILGA – The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association - www.ilga.org
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