Gay Travel Advisory

Malawi

Penal Code Cap. 7:01

Sources
  1. Text of the law is available at: https://malawilii.org/system/files/consolidatedlegislation/701/penal_code_pdf_14611.pdf

Legal Code Text

Section 153 - “Anyone who: (a) has carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature; or [...] (c) permits a male person to have carnal knowledge of him or her against the order of nature, shall be guilty of a felony and shall be liable to imprisonment for fourteen years, with or without corporal punishment.”

Section 154 - “Any person who attempts to commit any of the offences specified in the last preceding section shall be guilty of a felony and shall be liable to imprisonment for seven years, with or without corporal punishment.”

Section 156 - “Any male person who, whether in public or private, commits any act of gross indecency with another male person, or procures another male person to commit any act of gross indecency with him, or attempts to procure the commission of any such act by any male person with himself or with another male person, whether in public or private, shall be guilty of a felony and shall be liable to imprisonment for five years, with or without corporal punishment.”

Section 137A - “Any female person who, whether in public or private, commits any act of gross indecency with another female shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a prison term of five years.”

ILGA Analysis & Notes

In December 2010, the Parliament passed a bill amending the Penal Code of Malawi. In late January 2011, President Bingu Wa Mutharika assented to the bill, thus completing its enactment into law. The new Section 137A, captioned “Indecent practices between females” provides that any female person who, whether in public or private, commits “any act of gross indecency with another female” shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a prison term of five years.

Sources
  1. See International Commission of Jurists, “Sex Between Women Now a Crime in Malawi: New Law Violates Human Rights Obligations of Malawi”, available at: http://www.iglhrc.org/sites/default/files/488-1.pdf

Continues to criminalise under Penal Code Section 153(c) (as amended 2011). A constitutional challenge (Jana Gonani case) to Sections 153/154/156 was heard by the High Court through 2023 amid intense religious-group mobilisation against it; judgment had not been issued as of the report's April 2024 cutoff.