Gay Travel Advisory

Zimbabwe

Criminal Law established by the Codification and Reform Act from 2006

Sources
  1. Text of the law is available at: https://www.unodc.org/res/cld/document/zwe/2006/criminal_law_codification_and_reform_act_html/criminal_law_codification_and_reform_act.pdf

Legal Code Text

Section 173 - “Any male person who, with the consent of another male person, knowingly performs with that other person anal sexual intercourse, or any act involving physical contact other than anal sexual intercourse that would be regarded by a reasonable person to be an indecent act, shall be guilty of sodomy and liable to a fine up to or exceeding level fourteen or imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or both. Subject to subsection (3), both parties to the performance of an act referred to in subsection (1) may be charged with and convicted of sodomy.”

ILGA Analysis & Notes

In its 1st cycle UPR in October 2011, Zimbabwe received only one recommendation: to repeal the 2006 law “as soon as possible” (France) – this was, unsurprisingly, rejected and the State made no reference to SOGI in its final report or in its Interactive Dialogue. At Zimbabwe’s 2nd UPR session in November 2016, the State receives 12 SOGI-related recommendations, mostly to do with decriminalisation. At date of writing the State has not yet delivered its response to these, while the Report of the Working Group records no mention of sexual or gender minorities in the State’s Interactive Dialogue. Despite the atmosphere of severe socio-political hostility and rhetoric directed at sexual and gender minorities over the past years, in October 2016 the country’s Labour Court (based in Bulawayo) accepted the plea of a youth worker who had been fired from the civil service because he had been arrested and paid a fine following a police raid on a party held by GALZ in 2014. This court found that the dismissal based on sexual orientation was unconstitutional (although sexual orientation is not expressly named in the Constitution document). In April 2016 in its Concluding Observations, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child expressed concern that national legislation “remains inconsistent with the non-discrimination of the Constitution”, regarding, inter alia, LGBTI children.

Continues to criminalise anal intercourse and related 'indecent acts' under the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (2004) Art. 73(1) (up to 1 year and/or a fine). Several 2023 arrests documented, including sodomy charges and a prosecution under the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act.