{"id":66,"area":"Latin America & Caribbean","region_name":"Guyana","iso_2":"GY","region_sub":null,"legal_code_title":"Criminal Law (Offences) Act from 1998","legal_code_title_citation_1":"Text of the law is available at: http://web.oas.org/mla/en/Pages/default.aspx","legal_code_title_citation_2":null,"legal_code_body":"Article 354 - “Everyone who commits buggery, either with a human being or with any other living creature, shall be guilty of felony and liable to imprisonment for life.”\n\nArticle 353(a) - “Everyone who [...] attempts to commit buggery [...] shall be guilty of felony and liable to imprisonment for ten years.”\n\nSection 352 - “Any male person, who in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission, or procures or attempts to procure the commission, by any male person, of an act of gross indecency with any other male person shall be guilty of misdemeanour and liable to imprisonment for two years.”","legal_code_body_citation_1":null,"legal_code_body_citation_2":null,"legal_code_body_citation_3":null,"legal_code_body_citation_4":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments":"At its 1st cycle UPR in May 2010, Guyana received seven recommendations to decriminalise and include SOGI as a named ground for non-discrimination. In its responses the State said that no cases stemming from the law had come before the courts, and that “[c]hanges to laws required widespread consultation and a major change in attitude on the part of the populace”. The delegation also indicated that attempts to include the phrase “sexual orientation” in the anti-discrimination clause of the Constitution “had been met with widespread consternation and protest”. \nGuyana received 17 recommendations in its 2nd cycle UPR in January 2015, of which it accepted three: to strengthen protections, to ensure that hate crimes and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity are vigorously investigated and appropriately prosecuted, and further review of legislative non-discrimination provisions relating to SOGI. All other recommendations had a call to decriminalise, and all 14 were rejected (‘noted’). In its responses the Guyana delegation pointed out that prior to elections the Parliamentary Special Select Committee had a mandate to look at reviewing the legislation, but that process had ceased. It stressed there had been “unfettered freedom” in regards to freedom of expression for LGBT groups, and that the State did not discriminate based on sexual orientation, as provided by the Constitution. \nAs for UN Treaty Bodies, both the CEDAW Committee, in 2012 and the CESCR in 2015 have urged Guyana to decriminalise consensual adult same-sex relations. Both bodies have also expressed concern at the high levels of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Additionally, in 2013, the CRC urged the State to ensure that its programmes address the situation of discrimination against children because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. \nAs one of the 35 Member States of the Organisation of American States (OAS) Guyana has subscribed to the resolutions on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity and Expression adopted by the OAS General Assembly since 2008. However, in 2013 and 2014, Guyana requested the insertion of footnotes in an attempt to limit or reject the content of the resolutions approved in those two years respectively. In 2013 the Government declared it was “unable to join consensus” given the fact that several of the issues addressed in the Resolution were the subject of deliberation “by a special select Committee of the National Assembly”. The exact same footnote was inserted in 2014. However, in 2016, Guyana withdrew from the list of countries requesting such “declarations” (see all OAS-GA Resolutions since 2008). \nIn late 2013, a public hearing on reports of discrimination and violence against children based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Guyana was held before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In 2015, another public hearing was held, focusing on access to social, economic and cultural rights (focus on the situation of LGBT people starts at minute 19.00). \nGuyanese NGO Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) and the Sexual Rights Initiative (SRI) submitted a detailed shadow report to Guyana’s 2nd cycle UPR that illustrates the main local challenges in terms of legal and societal bias and reports that “in a national survey 25% of Guyanese admitted to being homophobic while 18% approved of using violence against LGBT persons” (para. 8). \nAs reported in 76 Crimes in January 2016, Prime Minister Granger has said that he is “prepared to respect the rights of any adult to indulge in any practice which is not harmful to others”. Previously in 2015, he noted that his government would not allow religious imposition to trump the human rights of LGBT people in Guyana. A month earlier, the former Health Minister had spoken about Guyana showing leadership and repealing the archaic law, within the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030). \nAlso in 2016, representatives of a human rights organisation met with the Ministry of Social Protection and recommended that the government extend workplace discrimination protection to include sexual orientation, gender identity and health status. More recommendations to decriminalise consensual same-sex relations came from the European Union and the British Government and from the Guyana’s Country Coordinator for the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a United States governmental initiative to address the global HIV epidemic. \nIn early-2017, a study was published probing public views in Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago regarding the usefulness of the anti-gay laws in: reflecting moral standards, stopping ‘the spread of homosexuality’, importance in terms of public health, and effectiveness in protecting young people from abuse.","legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_1":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_2":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_3":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_4":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_5":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_6":null,"legal_code_scruff_comments":null,"prison_term_min_length":null,"prison_term_max_length":null,"prison_term_notes":null,"prison_term_not_specified":null,"prison_term_years":null,"prison_term_life":true,"prison_term_mandatory":null,"fine_min_amount":null,"fine_max_amount":null,"fine_currency":null,"fine_notes":null,"fine_not_specified":null,"fine_amount":null,"fine_mandatory":null,"penalty_death":false,"penalty_death_notes":null,"penalty_corporal_punishment":null,"penalty_corporal_punishment_notes":null,"penalty_hard_labor":null,"penalty_hard_labor_notes":null,"penalty_banishment":null,"legal_code_explicitly_references_same_sex_acts":true,"legal_code_explicitly_references_acts_against_nature":null,"legal_code_differentiates_anal_sex_from_other_acts":true,"legal_code_indicates_hiv_as_aggravating_factor":null,"legal_code_indicates_age_of_consent_homosexual_acts_over_18":null,"existing_laws_used_to_target_gays_but_not_anti_gay":null,"islamic_sharia_law":null,"islamic_sharia_law_notes":null,"laws_subregional_variance_or_contradiction":null,"laws_subregional_variance_or_contradiction_notes":null,"laws_not_specifically_homophobic":null,"laws_status_unclear":null,"laws_status_unclear_notes":null,"persecution_non_state_agents":null,"criminalization_under_consideration":null,"recently_decriminalized":null,"propaganda_law_under_consideration":null,"propaganda_law_title":null,"propaganda_law_title_citation_1":null,"propaganda_law_body":null,"propaganda_law_body_citation_1":null,"propaganda_law_ilga_comments":null,"legal_developments_2023_2024_summary":null,"legal_developments_2023_2024_citations":"ILGA World, Laws On Us: A Global Overview of Legal Progress and Backtracking on SOGIESC, 1st Ed. (Geneva, May 2024) (country not referenced in Ch.1/2 narrative).","status_change_type":"Unchanged (not mentioned in 2024 report)"}