Anti-gay laws declared 'unconstitutional'

A top Namibian court on Friday struck down the country's colonial-era laws criminalising same-sex relationships, in a verdict hailed as ‘historic’ by rights groups. The High Court in Windhoek declared the crimes of ‘sodomy’ and ‘unnatural sexual offences’ as ‘unconstitutional and invalid’ in its ruling on the case brought by a local LGBTQ activist, according to an AFP report on the Barron's site. ‘We are not persuaded that in a democratic society such as ours... it is reasonably justifiable to make an activity criminal just because a segment, maybe a majority, of the citizenry consider it to be unacceptable,’ the judges wrote. The judgment overturns rarely enforced laws dating back to 1927, which Namibia inherited from the colonial era but maintained after gaining independence from SA in 1990. ‘Because of this decision, I no longer feel like a criminal on the run in my own country simply because of who I am,’ Friedel Dausab, the activist who brought the case, said in a statement. London-based Human Dignity Trust, a non-profit organisation that supported the legal case, called the ruling ‘historic’, saying it struck down laws that enabled stigma and discrimination. The ruling represents the latest victory for the Namibian LGBTQ community but comes amid a wider pushback against its rights in southern Africa.

News24 reports that John Nakuta, a law professor at the University of Namibia, said the court's order can be appealed by the Namibian government within 21 days. South Africa is now the only country on the African continent to allow LGBTQ couples to adopt children, marry and enter civil unions. Last year, Uganda enacted one of the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ laws, which included the death penalty for ‘aggravated homosexuality’, despite widespread condemnations from the West.

See also A Matter of Justice column below