Seychelles set to end gay sex ban

Lawmakers in the popular island tourist nation of Seychelles will soon vote on scraping the country’s colonial era ban on homosexuality.

According the Seychelles News Agency, the cabinet agreed on Monday to repeal the nation’s criminalisation of gay sex, which was introduced in 1955 while it was still a British colony.

A draft text has been sent to Attorney General Ronny Govinden before it is presented to parliament “in the coming weeks”.

“It is a priority for the country because whenever the Seychelles is participating in an international convention… we face pressures from other countries who are asking us to remove this law,” said Govinden.

He stated that the country would not take the route of holding a referendum on the issue. “This is a simple amendment to the penal code which can be done by the National Assembly and this avoids conflict. This amendment will just decriminalise homosexuality in Seychelles.”

Section 151 of the penal code currently outlaws “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature” or permitting “a male person to have carnal knowledge of him … against the order of nature.”

While the law has rarely been enforced, those found guilty could be jailed for fourteen years.

The news service noted that, “the decision of Seychelles to withdraw the law penalising homosexuality would also be in line with various international conventions the country has signed, like the declaration of human rights, which prohibits all discrimination.”

The country, which has a population of just 93,000, previously pledged in 2011 to review the criminalisation of homosexuality, but it now looks like this will finally become a reality.

Seychelles  Foreign Affairs Secretary Barry Faure commented: “Seychelles was committed in 2011 to review the law on homosexuality and this had not been done and Britain questions us saying that we have not made progress on this issue.”

Homosexuality is illegal in around 36 countries in Africa. If the amendment is passed by lawmakers, Seychelles will join Mozambique as the only other African nation to recently decriminalise homosexuality.