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Global Map: Criminalization of Same-Sex Conduct and Colonial Legacy
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The map below highlights countries around the world where same-sex sexual conduct is criminalized, showing current laws and their colonial origins. Explore the map to delve deeper into these laws, uncover their colonial roots, and see how the fight for a safer, more equal future depends on progressive legal reform, decolonized systems, and global resistance.
Last Updated: January 2026
65
UN member states
criminalize consensual same-sex sexual acts
48
of these countries
have criminalizing laws with colonial origins or influences
72*
countries
have repealed or struck down colonial or occupation criminal laws
*The exact number is difficult to determine due to challenges in historical legal research. This number includes former overseas colonies, mandates, and occupied territories of European empires (Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal) and trust territories of the U.S. in the Pacific. It also counts post-Soviet states (Russian domination), Finland (Swedish Empire), Iceland (Danish Empire), Namibia (South African occupation), and Poland (Austrian, Prussian, and Russian partition).
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Global Map: Criminalization of Same-Sex Conduct and Colonial Legacy
Algeria
Law:
Code pénal (promulgué par le décret n ° 66-156 du 18 Safar 1386 correspondant au 8 Juin, 1966)
While France decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual acts in 1791, it prohibited sodomy in some of its colonies, including Algeria.
Brunei
Law:
Penal Code, 1951 (Cap. 22), Syariah Penal Code Order, 2013
The Straits Settlement Law, which applies the Indian Penal Code, took effect in 1871 in a territory that today encompasses Brunei.
Section 377 of the 1951 Penal Code was also first imposed during the colonial period.
Burkina Faso
Law:
Loi N°012-2025/ALT Portant Code des Personnes et de la Famille au Burkina Faso
The law is of local origin. The country did not criminalize same-sex sexual acts before and immediately after its independence from France in 1960.
Burundi
Law:
Loi No. 1/05 de 2009 portant Révision du Code Pénal
The law is of local origin.
Bangladesh
Law:
The Penal Code, 1860 (ACT NO. XLV OF 1860)
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. Section 377 of the Penal Code of 1860 remains intact today.
Cameroon
Law:
Law No. 2016/007 of July 12, 2016, relating to the Penal Code
While France decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual acts in 1791, it prohibited sodomy in some of its colonies, including Cameroon. As Human Rights Watch emphasized, France imposed sodomy laws on colonies "as a means of social control, and versions of these survive in countries such as...Cameroon."
Scholars note that Cameroon underwent a process of "legal mimicry" and that the Cameroonian prohibition of same-sex intimacy, enacted after independence, "is similar to the provisions of French criminal law."
Comoros
Law:
Code pénal: Partie relative aux crimes et délits (Loi n°81-007 du 19 novembre 1981)
The law is of local origin.
Egypt
Law:
-
Law No. 10/1961, on the Combating of Prostitution
-
Law No. 58 01 The Year 1937 Promulgating The Penal Code
Vague provisions prohibiting "indecency" and "debauchery" used to criminalize homosexuality were inherited from British colonial laws. As Human Rights Watch puts it, "Egypt’s legislation on sexual conduct does not, despite the government’s protestations, derive from immemorial cultural values. It is a product of Egypt’s secular law system, stemming ultimately from codes imposed during colonial rule. Egypt’s criminalization of consensual, non-commercial sex between men arose partly out of, and partly in reaction to, the colonial regulation of female sex work."
Eritrea
Law:
Penal Code of the State of Eritrea, 2015
This was inherited from the Eritrean Transitional Penal Code, based on the Penal Code of Ethiopia 1957 imposed during colonial rule.
Article 310 of the Penal Code of 2015 maintained the criminalizing provision in the 1957 Penal Code, but increased the maximum penalty from three to seven years of imprisonment.
Eswatini
Law:
The Constitution of the Kingdom of Swaziland Act, 2005 (Act No: 001 of 2005)
The Constitution of Swaziland states that the principles and rules of the Roman-Dutch Common Law "as applicable to Swaziland since 22nd February 1907 are confirmed and shall be applied and enforced as the common law of Swaziland."
"Sodomy" was criminalized under the 1907 common law applied in the Transvaal Colony of the British Empire. Eswatini, then called Swaziland, was made a protectorate of the British from 1903 to 1968.
Eswatini
Law:
Proclamation no. 414/2004 : Criminal Code of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
The law is of local origin. Ethiopia has never been colonized by a foreign power.
Gambia
Laws:
Criminal Code (Act No. 25 of 1933), Criminal Code (Amendment) Act, 2005. No. 3 of 2005, Criminal Code (Amendment) Act, 2014 (No. 11 of 2014)
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period.
The colonial Criminal Code (1934) was updated in 2005 to explictly include anal and oral sex and "any other homosexual act." In 2014, the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act introduced the offense of "aggravated homosexuality."
Ghana
Law:
Criminal Code (Amendment) Act, 2003 (Act 646), Criminal Procedure Code, 1960 (Act 30)
Present-day Ghana was a British colony under the name of Gold Coast from 1821 until its independence in 1957. Their criminalization of "unnatural carnal knowledge" was inherited from a law prepared by a British jurist for Jamaica. Ghana is the only country that follows this model and not that of the Indian Penal Code or the Queensland Criminal Code.
"The criminal code of the colony of the Gold Coast (Ghana), enacted in 1892, was drafted by Sir Joseph Hutchinson and was closely modeled on the 1889 code drafted by the Chief Justice of St. Lucia, which was itself based on Wright’s Jamaica code. As with Wright’s original code, there was a distinction between consensual and nonconsensual acts, which was carried over to the post-independence era, after 1957, in the 1960 criminal code of Ghana."
Read more: Han, Enze, and Joseph O'Mahoney. British colonialism and the criminalization of homosexuality: Queens, crime and empire. Routledge, 2018.
Grenada
Law:
Criminal Code, CAP. 76, 1958
The prohibition of "buggery" and "indecency" was inherited from British colonial penal provisions. Provisions criminalizing these acts in the Criminal Code of 1958, adopted during colonial rule, remain in force today.
Guinea
Law:
Loi n° 2016/059/AN, du 26 octobre 2016 portant Code pénal
The law is of local origin. It was passed in 1998, 40 years after Guinea gained independence from France.
Guyana
Law:
Criminal Law (Offences) Act (No. 18 of 1893)
The prohibition of "buggery" and "indecency" was inherited from British colonial penal provisions in the form of Sections 353 and 353 of the Criminal Law (Offences) Act (1893). They remain in force.
Indonesia
Laws
- Law no. 1 of 2023 Concerning the Criminal Code
- Aceh Regulation No. 6, 2014
- South Sumatra's Provincial Ordinance on the Eradication of Immoral Behavior (No. 13/2002)
The new criminal code, which came into effect on January 2, 2026, criminalizes sexual intercourse outside marriage as adultery (Article 411). This penal code replaces the Dutch-era criminal law, which did not criminalize same-sex sexual acts.
The criminalizing laws in several provinces, districts, and municipalities are of local origin.
Iraq
Law:
Iraqi Penal Code (Law No. 111 of 1969)
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed on Iraq as the Mandate of Mesopotamia. Since then, Iraq has further criminalized same-sex intimacy through Shariah and the draconian Anti-Prostitution and Homosexuality Law of 2024.
Iran
Law:
The Islamic Penal Code Of 2013, The Islamic Penal Code Of 1991
The law is of local origin.
Jamaica
Law:
Offences Against the Person Act (Cap. 269) as amended to Act No. 18 of 2010
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. Offences Against the Person Act (1864), enacted during colonial rule, remains in force.
Kenya
Law:
Penal Code (Cap. 63), as amended by the Criminal Law Act, 2003 (No. 5 of 2003)
COLONIAL: Directly inherited colonial provisions
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. The Penal Code (1930), enacted during colonial rule, as amended by Criminal Law (Amendment) Act (2003), retains earlier prohibitions of same-sex sexual acts.
Kiribati
Law:
Penal Code (Cap. 67)
COLONIAL: Directly inherited colonial provisions
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. The Penal Code (1977), adopted during the country's period of self-government two years before independence in 1979, retains earlier prohibitions of same-sex sexual acts and remains in force.
Kuwait
Law:
Law No. 16 Of 1960 Promulgating The Penal Code
The Penal Code Regulation of 1955 applied to Kuwait as a British protectorate between 1899 and 1965, replacing the Indian Penal Code. In 1960, a new criminal code was adopted, incorporating Shariah and colonial legal frameworks, and was amended in 1976 to punish consensual sex between men of at least 21 years of age with imprisonment of up to seven years.
Link to The Penal Code Regulation of 1955 for Kuwait, which contains Article 172, criminalizing carnal intercourse: https://www.agda.ae/en/catalogue/tna/fo/371/109926/n/181
Read more: Sofer, Jehoeda. "Sodomy in the law of muslim states." Sexuality and eroticism among males in Moslem societies (1992): 131-149.
Lebanon
Law:
Penal Code (Legislative Decree No. 340)
Human Rights Watch, HELEM and some scholars have pointed out that Article 534 of the Penal Code (1943) criminalizing “sexual intercourse against nature” was directly inherited from a 1942 law in Vichy France imposing a higher age of consent for same-sex relations.
However, some scholars assert that it is more complex than that. As University of California Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies Ivan Strenski argued, "Article 534 was the product of native religious, legal, and moral thinking among the Maronites, reinforced by the Thomistic and post-Tridentine moral theology taught in Lebanon by the Jesuit missions. Thomistic and post-Tridentine moral theology classified same-sex relations as worthy of condemnation as “unnatural acts”—the same language used in Article 534. Therefore, as a product of Lebanese political and religious sectarianism, Article 534 is a specific case of a congenial collaboration of Jesuit moral theology and a conservative Maronite ethical and legal koine."
Liberia
Law:
New Penal Law of 1976
This law is of local origin. Liberia was never formally colonized by a foreign power.
Malawi
Law:
Penal Code (Chapter 7:01)
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period.
In 2011, Malawi amended the Penal Code to criminalize “indecent practices between females."
Malaysia
Law:
Penal Code – Act 574 (1936, rev. 1997)
The Straits Settlement law, which applies the Indian Penal Code, took effect in 1871 in a territory that today encompasses Malaysia.
Criminalizing provisions were updated in 1976 and 1989, strengthening penalties, clarifying the scope of criminalized acts, and adding provisions on "outrages of decency." In addition, Shariah is applicable to Muslim citizens, and some states have enacted laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy.
Maldives
Law:
Penal Code (Law No. 6/2014)
Human Rights Watch and some scholars have noted that the Maldives inherited Section 377 from British penal provisions imposed during the protectorate period.
In 2014, the Maldives enacted a Penal Code which prohibits same-sex marriage and same-sex sexual acts.
Mali
Law:
Code Pénal 2024 (Loi n° 2024-027 du 13 Decembre 2024 portant Code Penal)
This law is of local origin.
Mauritania
Law:
Ordonnance 83-162 du 09 juillet 1983 portant institution d’un Code Pénal
This law is of local origin.
Morocco
Law:
Criminal Code (promulgated by Dahir No. 1-59-413 of 28 Jumada II 1382
While France decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual acts in 1791, it prohibited them in some of its protectorates, including Morocco.
Penal provisions criminalizing same-sex intimacy, enacted after independence, are said to have been influenced by French anti-sodomy laws, which were in force during the French protectorate in Morocco.
Myanmar
Law:
Penal Code (India Act XLV, 1860) (as amended up to Law No. 10/2019 of March 25, 2019)
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. The Indian Penal Code has been in effect since 1860, and Article 377 remains unchanged in the code.
Nigeria
Law:
- Criminal Code Act (1916) (Cap C.38 LFN 2004)
- Penal Code (Northern States) Federal Provisions Act (No. 25 of 1960)
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period.
The Criminal Code Act (2004) and the Penal Code (Northern States) Federal Provisions Act (1959) retain provisions imposed during colonial rule, criminalizing "carnal knowledge against the order of nature" and "gross indecency." In addition, 12 Northern states have adopted Shariah and penalize same-sex sexual acts in varying degrees. The 2014 Same-Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act (SSMPA) criminalizes same-sex marriage and displays of affection between people of the same gender.
Oman
Law:
The Penal Law Promulgated by Royal Decree 7/2018
The Indian Penal Code, derived from English criminal law, was imposed by the British on their protectorates in 1861, including Oman.
According to Human Rights Watch, "British colonizers implanted the Indian Penal Code (created by the British themselves, not by Indians) in its protectorates throughout the region in 1861, including in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, parts of what is now Yemen, and the area that is now the United Arab Emirates (UAE); it punished “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” with a deportation for 20 years, imprisonment for ten years, or a fine."
Link to The Penal Code Regulation of 1955 for Muscat, which contains Article 172, criminalizing carnal intercourse: https://www.agda.ae/en/catalogue/tna/fo/371/109926/n/181
These provisions have not been directly retained. The criminalization of same-sex intimacy stems from colonial-era prohibition and Shariah influences on Omani society.
Pakistan
Law:
-
Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860)
-
Ordinance No. VII of 1979, Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. The Indian Penal Code has been in effect since 1860, and Section 377 remains unchanged in the code. In addition, Pakistan passed Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance (Ordinance No. VII) in 1979 to prohibit zina.
Papua New Guinea
Law:
Criminal Code Act 1974
The law was inherited from Australian criminal law, which was based on British law. Sections 210 and 212 of the Criminal Code of Papua New Guinea (1974, as amended in 2002) criminalize "unnatural offenses" or sexual penetration "against the order of nature" and "indecent practices between males." Despite an amendment in 2002, the law remains largely unchanged from the British Penal Code of the Australian Colony of Queensland (1899).
Qatar
Law:
Law No. 11 of 2004 Issuing the Penal Code
The Indian Penal Code, derived from English criminal law, was imposed by the British on their protectorates in 1861, including Qatar.
In 1956, this was replaced by Article 171, which was then replaced after independence by Article 201 of the 1971 Penal Code. It was amended in 2004, decreasing the maximum penalty for same-sex sexual acts from five years to three years.
Link to The Penal Code Regulation of 1955, which contains Article 171, criminalizing carnal intercourse: https://www.agda.ae/en/catalogue/tna/fo/371/109926/n/181
Read more: Sofer, Jehoeda. "Sodomy in the law of muslim states." Sexuality and eroticism among males in Moslem societies (1992): 131-149.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Law:
Criminal Code (Act No. 23 of 1988)
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. Penal provisions in the Criminal Code of 1988 prohibiting buggery and gross indecency are direct colonial remnants from English criminal law.
Samoa
Law:
Crimes Act (No. 10, 2013)
The law was inherited from New Zealand criminal law, which was based on British law. New Zealand occupied Samoa from 1914 to 1962. During this period, New Zealand criminal law, based on English criminal law, was imposed. Samoa retained criminalizing provisions even after its independence in 1962, criminalizing "sodomy" and "attempts to commit sodomy."
Saudi Arabia
Law:
-
Basic Law of Governance
-
Law of Criminal Procedure, Royal Decree No. (M/39)
This law is of local origin.
Senegal
Law:
Loi n° 65-60 du 21 juillet 1965 portant Code pénal
As Human Rights Watch emphasized, France imposed sodomy laws on colonies "as a means of social control, and versions of these survive in countries such as...Senegal."
Senegal did not directly retain these provisions but enacted a penal code five years after independence that criminalizes "acts against nature" with a person of the same sex."
Sierra Leone
Law:
Offences Against the Person Act 1861
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. The Offences Against the Person Act (1861), imposed during British colonial rule, remains in force. Section 61 criminalizes "buggery."
Solomon Islands
Law:
Penal Code (Cap. 26) [revised edition 1996]
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. The Penal Code retains provisions criminalizing "buggery," "unnatural offenses," and “indecent practices between persons of the same sex."
Somalia
Law:
Penal Code, Legislative Decree No. 5 of 16 December 1962
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. The Penal Code of 1962 retained provisions from the Indian Penal Code that criminalized same-sex sexual acts in British Somalia. In addition, Shariah is in force in some parts of the country, wherein same-sex intimacy is punishable by death.
Read more: Sofer, Jehoeda. "Sodomy in the law of muslim states." Sexuality and eroticism among males in Moslem societies (1992): 131-149.
South Sudan
Law:
The Penal Code Act, 2008
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. Along with Sudan, South Sudan was part of a "condominium" of the United Kingdom and Egypt between 1899 and 1956. During this period, the Sudanese Penal Code of 1899, based on English criminal law, criminalized "carnal intercourse against the order of nature." Article 248 of the Penal Code (2008), which remains in effect today even after South Sudan's founding as a republic in 2011, continues to prohibit “carnal intercourse against the order of nature."
Read more: Sofer, Jehoeda. "Sodomy in the law of muslim states." Sexuality and eroticism among males in Moslem societies (1992): 131-149.
Sri Lanka
Law:
Penal Code (1885), as amended by the Penal Code (Amendment) Act (Act No. 22) (1995)
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period.
Sudan
Law:
The Criminal Act 1991
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. Sudan retains provisions from the Indian Penal Code criminalizing same-sex sexual acts. In addition, the current penal code also incorporates Shariah and criminalizes Zina. Read more: Sofer, Jehoeda. "Sodomy in the law of muslim states." Sexuality and eroticism among males in Moslem societies (1992): 131-149.
Syria
Law:
Penal Code (issued by Legislative Decree No. 148/1949)
This law is of local origin.
Tanzania
Law:
-
The Penal Code (Revised Edition 2022)
-
Penal Decree (Act No. 6 of 2004)
This was inherited from British penal provisions imposed during the colonial period. In 1998, the penal code was amended to extend the criminalization of "gross indecency" to acts between women.
Togo
Law:
Loi n° 2015-010 du 24 novembre 2015 portant nouveau Code pénal
This law is of local origin.
Tonga
Law:
Loi n° 2015-010 du 24 novembre 2015 portant nouveau Code pénal
This law is of local origin.
Trinidad and Tobago
Laws:
-
Sexual Offenses Act (Act 27 of 1986)
-
Offenses Against the Person Act of 1925
In 1986, the Sexual Offenses Act (Act 27 of 1986) replaced the British colonial-era Offences Against the Person Act 1925. In 2018, the High Court struck down the Sexual Offenses Act (Act 27 of 1986), effectively decriminalizing same-sex intimacy in the country. However, in March 2025, the Court of Appeals overturned the High Court decision.
Section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act (SOA) is reinstated with a lesser penalty of five years, and Section 16 of the SOA is replaced by section 61 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1925.
Tunisia
Law:
Code pénal institué par le Décret du 9 juillet 1913 (tel que modifié)
While France decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual acts in 1791, it prohibited it in some of its protectorates, including Tunisia.
The 1913 Tunisian Penal code was drafted by a commission set up by the French protectorate. Article 230 criminalizes sodomy in the French version, while the Arabic version punishes both liwat (male) and musahaqa (female) same-sex sexual acts. It largely mirrors the 1810 French Penal Code, which nevertheless had no references to homosexuality. The previous penal code, enacted before colonization in 1861, likewise did not explcitly mention homosexuality.
Turkmenistan
Law:
Criminal Code of Turkmenistan No. 222-I of June 12, 1997 (as amended up to November 9, 2013)
After the Soviet Union collapsed, Turkmenistan continued to criminalize consensual same-sex sexual acts. Criminalizing provisions were adopted when Turkmenistan was a Soviet Socialist Republic and remain in the new penal code.
Tuvalu
Law:
Penal Code (Cap. 10.20)
This was inherited from British penal provisions during its protectorate era. Section 153 of the the Penal Code, adopted in 1965 during the British protectorate era and amended in 2008, criminalizes "buggery with another person," while Section 155 prohibits "indecent practices between males."
Uganda
Law:
Penal Code Act: Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023
The Penal Code of 1950 was inherited from British penal provisions during the protectorate era.
On top of provisions prohibiting "unnatural offenses" and "indecent practices" in the penal code, Uganda further criminalized same-sex acts through the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, which criminalizes other acts such as the "promotion of homosexuality" and makes "aggravated homosexuality" a capital offense.
United Arab Emirates
Law:
Federal Law by Decree No. (31) of 2021
Promulgating the Crimes and Penalties Law
The Indian Penal Code, derived from English criminal law, was imposed by the British on its protectorates in 1861, including UAE.
The Indian Penal Code was imposed by the British in the Trucial States, or what is now known as the UAE, in 1861. It was replaced by a new code in 1956, which made sodomy punishable with imprisonment not exceeding 10 years, with or without corporal punishment.
Link to the The Penal Code Regulation of 1955 for the Trucial States, which contains Article 172, criminalizing carnal intercourse: https://www.agda.ae/en/catalogue/tna/fo/371/109926/n/181
The current Federal Penal Code (FPC), which came into force in 1988 and is based on Shariah, does not abolish the penal laws of the seven emirates. Articles 354 and 356 of the FPC are interpreted as prohibiting same-sex sexual acts. The penal codes of some emirates also prohibit same-sex sexual acts.
Read more: Sofer, Jehoeda. "Sodomy in the law of muslim states." Sexuality and eroticism among males in Moslem societies (1992): 131-149.
Uzbekistan
Law
Criminal Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan of 22 September 1994
After the Soviet Union collapsed, Uzbekistan continued to criminalize consensual same-sex sexual acts. Criminalizing provisions were adopted when Uzbekistan was a Soviet Socialist Republic and remain in the new penal code.
Yemen
Law:
Republican Decree for Law No 12 for the Year 1994 Concerning Crimes and Penalties
In 1937, the Indian Penal Code was imposed by the British on the Crown Colony of Aden, in South Yemen. In 1955, the Penal Code for the Persian Gulf was introduced, with Article 172 criminalizing carnal intercourse. In 1967, the National Liberation Front took control of South Yemen. In 1976, it enacted the Penal Code of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen of 1976, which "although influenced by Soviet legislation, does not mention sexual acts between adult males." North Yemen, which was not captured by the British, imposed Shariah prior to the unification in 1990.
The unified present-day follows a penal code based on Shariah, adopted in 1994, which criminalizes same-sex sexual acts.
Link to The Penal Code Regulation of 1955: https://www.agda.ae/en/catalogue/tna/fo/371/109926/n/181
Read more: Sofer, Jehoeda. "Sodomy in the law of muslim states." Sexuality and eroticism among males in Moslem societies (1992): 131-149.
Zambia
Law:
The Penal Code Act (Cap. 87)
This was inherited from British penal provisions during the protectorate era.
Articles 155 and 158 of the Penal Code of Zambia, as amended by No. 26 of 1933, prohibit carnal intercourse against the order of nature and indecent practices between males. Article 155 remains unchanged up to this day, while Article 158 was amended in 2005 to extend the prohibition of indecent practices to same-sex sexual acts between women and between children.
Zimbabwe
Law:
Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23] (No. 23/2004)
This was inherited from British penal provisions during colonial rule. The criminalization of consensual same-sex sexual acts in Zimbabwe dates back to colonization by Cecil John Rhodes’s British South Africa Company (BSAC) of Southern Rhodesia. Roman-Dutch Law, applicable at the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), then criminalized "sodomy" in Zimbabwe. This was extended in 2004 through the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Act No. 23) to cover “any act involving physical contact other than anal sexual intercourse that would be regarded by a reasonable person to be an indecent act."
