Law regarding same-sex sexual activity
Common law prohibitions include sodomy, defined as the "unlawful and intentional sexual relations per anum between two human males" as well as unnatural offences, defined as the unlawful and intentional commission of an unnatural sexual act by one person with another person. Section 11 of the Censorship and Entertainments Control Act, which provides that no person shall import, print, publish, distribute, or keep for sale any publication which is undesirable (defined as "indecent or obscene or is offensive or harmful to public morals or is likely to be contrary to public health") has been used to harass LGBT people and activists.[13]
In 1996, former President Canaan Banana was arrested based on accusations made during the murder trial of his former bodyguard, Jefta Dube, and found guilty of eleven charges of sodomy, attempted sodomy and indecent assault in 1998. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, defrocked, and served 6 months in an open prison. Laws passed in 2006 criminalized any actions perceived as homosexual. The Zimbabwean Government has made it a criminal offense for two people of the same sex to hold hands, hug, or kiss. The "sexual deviancy" law was one of 15 additions to Zimbabwe's Criminal Code quietly passed in Parliament. The sections involving gays and lesbians are part of an overhaul of the country's sodomy laws. Before then, laws against sodomy were limited to sexual activity, and the revised law now states that sodomy is any "act involving contact between two males that would be regarded by a reasonable person as an indecent act".[14]
Recognition of same-sex relationships
Zimbabwe does not recognise same-sex marriage or civil unions. In 2013, the Zimbabwe Constitution was amended to define marriage as being between a man and a woman.[15] In May 2019, Mnangagwa's Cabinet approved amendments to Zimbabwean marriage law, which would ban both child marriages and same-sex marriages, lining it with the Constitution.[16]
Yahya Jammeh News
21 November, 2014 1:47PM EST' Gambia: Life Sentence for 'Aggravated Homosexuality'
ReplyYayah Toure
November 18, 2014 12:00 am
Gambia must stop wave of homophobic arrests and torture.
ReplyYasmin Amin
Tue 9 Sep 2014 00.18 BST
Gambia's president threatens to slit the throats of gay men.
Reply