Syria

Legal Code Summary

Penal Code of 1949

Legal Code Text

Article 520 - “Any unnatural sexual intercourse shall be punished with a term of imprisonment of up to three years.”

Article 517 - “Any act against public decency mentioned in Article 208(1) [any act carried out in a public or open area where one could possibly see, intentionally or accidentally, the act] is punishable with imprisonment of three months to three years.”

ILGA Analysis & Notes

Despite the provisions of the black letter law, since 2011 Syria has become one of the most dangerous places on earth for sexual and gender minorities, with frequently complex responses to same sex sexual activity. Of the relatively few testimonies that have emerged out of the war-ravaged country, scenes of torture, persecution, summary execution carried out by State and non-State actors, and often extended family members are reported. In its 1st cycle UPR, in 2011, Amnesty International was the only NGO that made a submission about the repeal of Article 520. No States made recommendations on this issue, and there is no reference to SOGI in the concluding documents from the first cycle. Only two civil society submissions were made to Syria’s 2nd UPR in November 2016, including this observation by MADRE (para 11): “Women and girls can be killed because of mere suspicion of an affair or romantic liaison, a false accusation, or for being raped or sexually assaulted. Victims of “honor” killings also include LGBT individuals”. AWASUR (Joint Submission 12) state: “LGBT identified individuals are persecuted and stigmatized socially and legally, where they are denied equal opportunities to education and work through the denial of employment in public services and sometimes in private establishments. They are also persecuted by the law through security trailing and detention, where many men have been beaten, tortured, and raped – individually and in groups – at checkpoints due to their sexual orientation”. In its preliminary Interactive Dialogue to date (March 2017), the Syrian delegation has made no mention of the multiple societal and official attacks and persecution of sexual or gender minorities in its responses.

SCRUFF Travel Notes

The emergence of ISIS/ISIL in Syria is not covered in ILGA's 2014 SSH report. It probably increases the risk for persecution by non-state agents acting under Islamic Sharia law