Gay Travel Advisory

Liberia

Penal Law from 1976 established by Vol. IV, Title 26

Sources
  1. Text of the law is available at: http://www.icla.up.ac.za/images/un/use-of-force/africa/Liberia/Penal%20Code%20Liberia%201978.pdf

Legal Code Text

Section 14.74 - “A person who engages in deviate sexual intercourse under circumstance not stated in Section 14.72 or 14.73 has committed a first-degree misdemeanour.”

Section 14.79 - “Definitions relating to sections on sexual crimes against the person. In this subchapter: 'sexual intercourse' occurs upon penetration, however slight; ejaculation in not required; ‘deviate sexual intercourse’ means sexual contact between human beings who are not husband and wife or living together as man and wife though not legally married, consisting of contact between penis and anus, mouth and penis, or mouth and vulva. ‘Sexual contact’ means any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of a person for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire.”

ILGA Analysis & Notes

The forces motivating and resisting sexual and gender diversity in Liberia since 2011 are well described in a country information note by the UK Home Office (December 2015), and in Rodenbough (2014).

Liberia received 12 recommendations, three of which they accepted, regarding SOGI in their 2nd UPR review in May 2015, concerning criminalisation, non-discrimination. Interestingly, Madagascar, another African Union (UN bloc) member State, made the recommendation to “condemn discrimination”, and the US made a call to implement the terms of their new National Human Rights Action Plan, which is inclusive of LGBT people, while Italy’s call for Liberia to “combat all forms of discrimination and abuse against LGBTI persons” were all accepted.

CEDAW made an unusual call (at para. 43) in its latest Concluding Observations in November 2015, recognising the actuality of lesbian lives in Liberia: “The Committee (...) also calls upon the State Party to adopt necessary legislative measures to ensure to protect the economic rights of women in de facto unions”.

Currently lacks formal provisions criminalising consensual same-sex activity. The military government's draft new Penal Code process (2023) reportedly aims to use 'lewd acts' language to cover same-sex conduct; the Minister of Justice publicly described homosexuality as 'unnatural' and signalled intent to sanction it. The new Constitution (approved by referendum, June 2023) restricts marriage to one man and one woman but does not itself criminalise same-sex acts.