Namibia’s High Court has overturned that a law banning same-sex marriages is discriminatory and should be scrapped in a landmark ruling seen as a victory for the gay community in the southwest African country.
The Windhoek High Court ruled on Friday that colonial-era legislation criminalising “sodomy” and “unnatural sexual offences” amounted to unfair discrimination under Namibia’s constitution, noting that the same consensual sexual conduct was not criminalised if it was between a man and a woman.
“We are of the firm view that the enforcement of private moral views of a section of a community (even if they form the majority of that community), which are based to a large extent on nothing more than prejudice, cannot qualify as such a legitimate purpose,” the judgment said.
Namibia inherited the law banning same-sex relationships when it gained independence from South Africa in 1990.
Under the law, it is illegal to marry someone of the same sex in Namibia but such unions are recognised where a same-sex couple weds abroad and one of them is not a Namibian citizen.
JN/APA