Decriminalization
The criminalization of people based on their sexual orientation contravenes international and regional human rights treaties. The institutionalization of this form of discrimination reinforces the disadvantages experienced by LGBT people and can be used as justification for violence against them, whether on the street, at home, or in prison.
In such countries, homophobic and transphobic individuals or groups take these laws as permission to target lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, organizations and events. Amnesty International is aware that this can lead to law enforcement officials acting with impunity by undertaking arbitrary arrests on the basis of allegations about sexual orientation, rumors of sexual behavior or objection to gender presentation, with few, if any, consequences for torture or other ill treatment.
Survivors of human rights abuses often have no recourse to justice and are deprived of access to redress. Moreover, without the fundamental protection of legality, it is impossible for activists to form organizations and campaign for the right to engage in consensual same-sex practices, or even to meet in public.
People detained or imprisoned solely because of their homosexuality – including those individuals prosecuted for having sex in circumstances which would not be criminal for heterosexuals, or for their gender identity – are considered to be prisoners of conscience. Amnesty International calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience held solely on the basis of their actual or imputed sexual orientation or gender identity.
Amnesty International calls for the decriminalization of homosexuality where such legislation remains, including a review of all legislation which could result in the discrimination, prosecution and punishment of people solely for their sexual orientation or gender identity.
This includes:
• "Sodomy" laws or similar provisions outlawing sexual conduct between people of same-sex or transgender individuals;
• Discriminatory age-of-consent legislation;
• Public order legislation used as a pretext for prosecuting and punishing people solely for their sexual orientation or gender identity;
• Laws banning the “promotion” of homosexuality which can be used to imprison lesbian, gay, bisexual, same-sex practicing and transgender individuals and human rights defenders.
Amnesty International further calls for a review of all legislation under which a person may be killed by the state, with the immediate aim of progressively restricting the scope of the death penalty so that it is not applied on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, and with a view to the eventual abolition of the death penalty, flogging, all other corporal punishments and all other cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments.
All such laws should be repealed or amended.
Decriminalization is a key step towards respecting, protecting and fulfilling the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, same-sex practicing and transgender people.
>> Read Love, hate and the law: decriminalizing homosexuality
