A cold coup in 2020 noticed the navy take management of Mali. Since then there have been rising studies of a declining human rights file within the west African nation.
The brand new leaders – the Nationwide Transitional Council – have clamped down on opposition politicians and the media. Promised elections haven’t been held. Now new legal guidelines have been handed that criminalise same-sex relations – and any citizen seen to encourage homosexuality.
Christophe Broqua is an anthropologist who researches lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) life in west Africa, together with in Mali. We requested him concerning the developments.
What does the legislation now say about same-sex sexual relations?
The brand new penal code was introduced in October 2024 and got here into impact on 13 December. It accommodates numerous new articles on problems with gender and sexuality. Whereas it condemns gender-based violence, it additionally criminalises homosexuality.
Similar-sex relationships are addressed in three articles. Not solely is same-sex apply now legal and punishable by legislation in Mali, however anybody seen to be beneficial to homosexuality can be prosecuted.
The primary two of the brand new articles concern “offences against public decency”. They reproduce the general public indecency and indecent assault articles of the earlier penal code however add same-sex relations to them.
Article 325-1 states:
Any unnatural sexual act carried out publicly with a person of the identical intercourse additionally constitutes public indecency. Indecent publicity, dedicated publicly and deliberately, is punishable by two years’ imprisonment and a high-quality of 200,000 francs (US$310).
Article 325-2 has added the next two sentences:
Any unnatural sexual act dedicated with a person of the identical intercourse additionally constitutes an indecent assault. Any remark, picture, public or non-public writing, any public or non-public act, more likely to approve, encourage, promote or facilitate the indecent assault … is punishable by seven years’ imprisonment and a high-quality of 500,000 francs ($775).
Article 325-10 on incest, which is new, states:
Incest dedicated between individuals of the identical intercourse constitutes an aggravating circumstance and is punishable by seven years’ imprisonment and a high-quality of 10,000,000 francs ($15,537).
A number of different articles additionally present for the criminalisation of HIV transmission, which may have a major influence on males who’ve intercourse with males in Mali.
Other than the brand new articles within the penal code, a brand new structure was introduced into impact in Mali in July 2023. In article 9 of chapter 1 it states:
Marriage and the household, which represent the pure basis of life in society, are protected and promoted by the State. Marriage is the union between a person and a girl.
This enhances and reinforces article 289 of the Code of Individuals and the Household adopted in 2011. This stipulates, amongst different issues, that “marriage is prohibited between persons of the same sex”.
What was the authorized standing of queer Malians earlier than this?
Most French-speaking African nations adopted a carbon copy of the anti-homosexual French colonial penal code once they gained independence – together with Mali’s neighbours Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.
Mali, nevertheless, didn’t accomplish that on the time of independence in 1960. It retained completely no measures in opposition to homosexuality when it drew up its first post-independence penal code.
Do these developments in Mali mirror a regional development?
Sure, what’s occurring in Mali factors to a extra common development within the Sahel area – though every nation should at all times be thought of by itself deserves.
A photograph of Colonel Aissimi Goïta, interim president following a coup that has seen a deterioration in human rights in Mali.
Olympia de Maismont/AFP/Getty Photos
This alignment of the three nations is no surprise, and stems from their political scenario. All three are at the moment dominated by navy juntas which have overthrown earlier regimes and are working beneath transitional governments pending future elections.
They’ve united in a “Confederation of Sahel States”, and have determined to withdraw from the Financial Neighborhood of West African States. Diplomatic relations with France have been frozen. In a context like this, the criminalisation of homosexuality is commonly an indication of opposition to the western world.
In different neighbouring nations, the scenario is completely different. Côte d’Ivoire is seen to be extra tolerant of LGBTIQ+ rights. But few French-speaking African nations have decriminalised homosexuality in recent times.
