LGBTQ+ rights in Africa 2024: Progress and setbacks

LAGOS - Namibia threw out its colonial-era law sodomy law this year taking the number of African countries with laws targeting LGBTQ+ people from 31 out of 54, down to 30, but elsewhere in 2024 crackdowns intensified.

Here are the significant updates from 2024.

Namibia: In June, the southern African country's high court overturned its colonial-era sodomy law as a result of a legal challenge brought by LGBTQ+ right advocate Friedel Dausab.

In parliamentary elections held in November, the country saw its first two openly LGBTQ+ candidates run for office.

Botswana: LGBTQ+ ally, Duma Boko, won a landslide victory to become the country's president-elect in November. Boko, a human rights lawyer, previously represented LGBTQ+ rights group LEGABIBO in a successful case for recognition in 2014.

In March, a constitutional amendment bill introduced to parliament included the rights of intersex persons, providing protection against discrimination.

Ghana: Ghana's anti-LGBTQ+ bill was passed unanimously by parliament in February, however President Nana Akufo-Addo did not sign the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values bill into law, leaving it to his successor after December's elections, president-elect John Mahama.

The bill, first introduced in 2021, would further criminalise LGBTQ+ Ghanaians and ban the "promotion" of LGBTQ+ activities.

Malawi: In June, Malawi's Constitutional Court rejected a legal challenge calling to overturn laws criminalising same-sex relations in the southern African country.

Same-sex relations remain an offense in Malawi, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

Uganda: The east African country's draconian anti-LGBTQ+ law, the Anti-Homosexuality Act, was upheld in court in April.

One year after the law was passed, many LGBTQ+ Ugandans have fled the country, while those who remain have seen reduced access to HIV/AIDS care and have faced evictions.

Mali: In October, Mali's Transitional National Council passed a law that criminalises homosexual activities. Although same-sex relations were not explicitly criminalised before this, LGBTQ+ Malians were persecuted under other penal codes.

Burkina Faso: In July, the military junta in the west African country said it had adopted the draft of an amended family code that criminalises homosexuality.

This story is part of a series supported by Hivos's Free To Be Me programme.

(Written by Pelumi Salako; Edited by Jonathan Hemming)