Togo

Legal Code Summary

Penal Code amended by Law No. 2015-010 from 24 November 2015

Legal Code Text

Article 392 - “Indecent or unnatural acts committed with a person of the same sex constitute an affront to good morals. Any attack on public morality by words, writings, images or by any other means also constitutes an affront to morality.”

Article 394 - “Anyone who: (1) publicly exposes, manufactures or sells for public display objects, images, films, sound recordings or visual audio, contrary to decency; (2) distributes or causes to be distributed on the public highway or by post, or door-to-door or electronically all books, brochures, catalogues, prospectuses, images, films, sound recordings or audio visuals contrary to decency, without the prior consent of the recipients; (3) distributes or publicly disseminate incentives for practices contrary to good morals by words, writing or any other means of communication, shall be punishable by imprisonment from six (06) months to two (02) years and a fine of five hundred thousand (500,000) to two million (2,000,000) CFA francs or one of these two penalties.”

ILGA Analysis & Notes

The socio-political environment for discourse on SOGI in Togo has been challenging over the past number of years, while there is some organising and activity around SOGI. Further, police are known to crack down on the vulnerable LGBT community at certain times, and according to a recent article (at 66), “... the biggest threat to the Togo LGBT community is the church and religious leaders. The Catholic church is very powerful there, strongly influencing moral, political and other issues”. Togo’s 1st cycle UPR was in October 2011, where the State received five recommendations relating to sexual orientation. It ‘noted’ all of them. However, in its response to the recommendations, the delegation said, “Togo was not prepared to legislate on the question of homosexuality, given that homosexuals were not subject to any form of discrimination. Such legislation might in fact be counterproductive, given the attitude of the population”. It did not address the recommendation by Spain to “... launch public awareness-raising campaigns on this issue”. At Togo’s 2nd UPR in November 2016, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Slovenia, France and Belgium all made recommendations to decriminalise same sex sexual activity. Slovenia and Argentina also made recommendation regarding discrimination, and Uruguay called for Togo to “[i]nvestigate all allegations of attacks and arbitrary detentions of LGBTI persons and bring the perpetrators to justice”. The Netherlands noted restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly, especially for women and those advocating for LGBTI rights, and the excessive use of force on demonstrators. At time of writing, the State’s response is pending, but without evidence of a positive alteration in attitude to date.