Sudan is the latest country to give hope to the African LGBTI community after it passed an amendment to abolish the section of its penal court that imposes the death penalty on anyone found engaging in consensual same sex relations. The new amendment was passed last week.
According to Bedanya, an organization for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Inter-sex people in the Nile Valley Area of Egypt and Sudan, the latter’s sovereign council passed new laws that approved the amendment to Article 148 of the 1991 Penal Code. This article which comprises of the sodomy law has now dropped the provision for death and whipping a hundred lashes of the stroke to anyone found engaging in same sex relations.
It must be noted that Article 148 continues to be active in Susan but this new development signifies a great win and progress for the KGBTI community in Sudan.
“Bendaya Organisation considers passing these laws and amendments as a great step towards reforming the justice system in Sudan; this would pave the path for change. “As freedom, peace and justice” was and will remain the slogan for the Sudan revolution. Justice will not exist with the institutions that apply the rule of law on the basis of freedom and equality,” read a part of the statement released by Bendeya on the passing of the new amendments/.
The Deputy Executive Director of Out Right International Maria Sjödin, in a statement noted the repeal of the death penalty for consensual same-sex sexual relations is among the reforms the Sovereignty Council approved.
“The removal of the death penalty for same-sex intimacy in Sudan among other important reforms, such as the banning of female genital mutilation and stoning for apostasy, is an important step for the human rights of LGBTIQ people, and human rights in Sudan overall,” said Sjödin.
This new move by Sudan Parliamentarians has also been greatly welcomed by the global LGBTI Islamic community, as it signifies the progress made by the movement in demystifying homosexuality within this strict religious setting. The global community continues to call for decriminalization of consensual same sex relations across the world.
