Did Letsweletse Motshidiemang, a 24-year-old gay man studying at the University of Botswana, suspect that he would help to make legal history in Botswana when he approached the Botswana High Court to have section 164 and 164 of the Botswana Penal Code declared unconstitutional and invalid? If he did not know it when he launched the challenge, he must know now that his case has resulted in a breath-taking victory for LGBT people in Botswana that may have wider impact.
Motshidiemang and his lawyers attacked the constitutionality of the impugned provisions of the Penal Code on various grounds. The court did not accept the argument that section 164 and of the code were void because it was too vague because the Botswana courts had previously interpreted these sections as prohibiting sexual intercourse in the form of anal sexual penetration.
Second, the High Court also found that the provisions infringed on the right to liberty guaranteed in section three of the Botswana Constitution. Once again, the court gave an expansive interpretation of the right, and once again linked it to autonomy, holding that the right to liberty included the right to choose a sexual partner – otherwise known as sexual autonomy.
The court held that the prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sex in the Botswana constitution should be read as including sexual orientation. The drafters of the Botswana constitution must have known that over time society would recognise that other groups not listed in the constitution also suffered from discrimination and the court should then offer protection to such groups.
Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)
pierredevos Laying the ground for further legal activism yes. Brilliant Court victory not so sure
pierredevos LGBTQIAP+ is mindset, deviance & ideology not science, biology & physiology. Male XY (penis, testes, sperm, testosterone). Female XX (vagina, ovum, WOMB, MAMMARY, oestrogen). DNA. Born that way. Stays that way. Biologically 'designed' reproductive organs purposed for procreation.
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