Search Results for: Botswana

The Supreme Court of Mauritius declared on Wednesday that a law criminalizing sodomy is “unconstitutional.” The court found that the provision of the country’s criminal code criminalizing sodomy discriminated against gay men on the basis of sex. The court ruled on claims brought forth by “Collectif-Arc-en-Ciel” (CAEC), on behalf of an individual named Abdool Ridwan [...]

READ MORE

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report Monday critiquing the Panamanian government’s lax efforts to assist coastal indigenous peoples in the country with relocation as their ancestral homelands are destroyed by climate change. The report focuses on the island of Gardi Sugdub and the Guna people living on it.  The residents of Gardi Sugdub have [...]

READ MORE

Hundreds of people protested on Saturday in Botswana’s capital Gaborone against a bill seeking to make same-sex relations legal. Botswana’s parliament was forced to introduce the bill legalizing same-sex relations pursuant to a 2019 ruling of the High Court of Botswana, which held that laws criminalizing same-sex relations are unconstitutional. The case was brought by [...]

READ MORE

Two men from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Tuesday pled guilty in federal court to charges of trafficking protected animal products from the DRC into the US. Herdade Lokua and Jospin Mujangi admitted before the US District Court for the Western District of Washington they had worked with a middleman since November 2019 to [...]

READ MORE

The Botswana Court of Appeal in a unanimous full bench decision Monday upheld a 2019 High Court of Botswana judgment that struck down penal provisions criminalizing same-sex sexual relations. Judge President Kirby, speaking for Justices Ranowane, Lesetedi, Gaongalelwe and Garekwe, dismissed the appeal filed by the attorney general against the high court’s judgment in Letsweletse Motshidiemang [...]

READ MORE

Nearly 120 years after Hong Kong made sodomy punishable by a possible life sentence, a recent court ruling marks a further step toward completely decriminalizing same-sex relations. In 2007, Hong Kong scrapped its British-era sodomy law. But, for over a decade, several remaining provisions in its Crime Ordinance continued to single out male same-sex relations, [...]

READ MORE

The High Court in Botswana unanimously revoked colonial-era laws criminalizing gay sex Tuesday. The court held that sections 164(a), 164(c), 165 and 167 of the penal code, which criminalize same-sex relations, are discriminatory and in conflict with the constitution. This section of the penal code includes as an offense “carnal knowledge of any person against [...]

READ MORE

JURIST Guest Columnist Chris Jones-Pauly discusses the misunderstandings regarding the indigenous laws of South Sudan in the context of transitional justice. In December 2013 South Sudan exploded into civil war, three years after the South's secession. The initial protagonists are...

READ MORE