Gay Travel Advisory

Mauritius

Penal Code from 1838

Sources
  1. Text of the law is available at: https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/en/mu/mu008en.pdf

Legal Code Text

Section 250(1) - “Any person who is guilty of the crime of sodomy or bestiality shall be liable to penal servitude for a term not exceeding 5 years.”

ILGA Analysis & Notes

In 2007, the Government introduced the Sexual Offences Bill, which would delete the crime of sodomy (see Section 24) and set an equal age limit of 16 years for sexual acts (Sections 11 to 14). However, the bill was never passed in the Parliament, and in 2013 the Government announced its decision (at para 17) to amend the Criminal Code instead, “in order to make better provisions for the criminalisation of various acts of sexual perversion” (this was later clarified (at para. 121) to refer to such acts as marital rape). It its 2nd cycle UPR cycle in 2013, the State of Mauritius received three recommendations (Ireland, Australia and Canada) to decriminalise sodomy, but responded that further consultations on the matter were necessary. In the section “Personal and Professional Behaviour’ of the 2015 “Code of Ethics for Public Officers”, non-discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation is listed. Following a complaint to the Equal Opportunities Commission of Mauritius in 2012, the ban on men who have sex with men giving blood was lifted in 2013.

Sources
  1. Waaldijk, Kees. Legal recognition of homosexual orientation in the countries of Africa, March 2011.
  2. Text of the bill is available at: http://mauritiusassembly.gov.mu/English/Documents/bill0607.pdf

The Supreme Court of Mauritius, in Fokeerbux and others v Mauritius (2023) and Ah Seek v Mauritius (2023), declared Section 250(1) of the Criminal Code (the 'sodomy' offence) unconstitutional on 4 Oct. 2023, ending criminalisation of consensual same-sex acts.