In a landmark decision, a panel of three High Court judges on Tuesday decriminalised sex between consenting adults in Botswana.
The judges – Abednego Tafa, Michael Leburu and Jenifer Dube – ruled that Section 164 of the Constitution is unconstitutional and declared that homosexuality is legal in Botswana.
Striking down Section 164, the three judges found that the section was discriminatory to the gay community.
The section criminalised sexual conduct between two consenting adults who identified as homosexuals.
“Denying the applicant the right to sexual intercourse in the only way natural to him even though it is done to all is in our view discriminatory…any dissemination to the minority in a society is a discrimination to all,” the three judges said in their landmark judgement.
The case was brought before the High Court by an organisation whose identity the Court requested that it should not be made public.
The judgement was handed down a few weeks after a High Court in Kenya declined to decriminalise homosexuality in that country.
KO/jn/APA