The highest court in Mauritius has decriminalized sexual relations between homosexual people by declaring a law dating from the British colonial era as unconstitutional. This historic decision was immediately welcomed by the LGBTQ community of this tourist island in the Indian Ocean, known for its tolerance and which had already, in the past, hosted homosexual events.
But until now, a law dating from 1898 punished anyone guilty of sodomy with up to five years in prison. This article of the penal code “was not introduced in Mauritius to reflect Mauritian values ??but is the legacy of our colonial history with Great Britain,” declared two judges of the Supreme Court on Wednesday October 4. “We therefore declare that Article 250 [which punished homosexual relations] is unconstitutional,” they added.
A legal appeal was filed by the gay community, who believed that the law violated fundamental rights.
The Supreme Court’s decision was welcomed by human rights movements as well as UNAIDS, the United Nations agency responsible for fighting HIV/AIDS, who stressed that it would help save lives. “Men who have relationships with men will be able to have easier access to health and social services without fear of being arrested or prosecuted,” said Anne Githuku-Shongwe, regional head of UNAIDS. But work remains to be done to combat the stigmatization of the LGBTQ community, according to her.
Several religions coexist in Mauritius: around half of the 1.3 million inhabitants are Hindu, just under a third are Christian and the rest are Muslim.
This decision comes at a time when a wave of repression against homosexuals is sweeping several East African countries, often encouraged by Muslim and Christian conservatives. In Uganda, for example, a country with a conservative Christian majority, President Yoweri Museveni promulgated an anti-homosexuality law in May which provides for heavy penalties for people having homosexual relations and “promoting” homosexuality. The crime of “aggravated homosexuality” is punishable by the death penalty, a sentence which has, however, not been applied for years in Uganda. This law, among the most repressive in the world, has sparked outrage from the United Nations, human rights groups and many Western countries.
