SALC’s programme on the rights of LGBTIQ+ persons has the following objectives:
- To act as a legal resource through which it can legally and strategically empower activists, lawyers, paralegals and civil society.
- To improve jurisprudence on the rights of LGBTIQ+ persons through incremental litigation focusing on freedom of association and expression for LGBTIQ+ activists in the region.
- To create a more nuanced legal strategy for criminal defence in sodomy cases.
- To assert the role of the State to provide full citizenship and self-determination to all persons irrespective of gender identity, sex characteristics and sexual orientation.
- To assert police accountability in cases of police abuse of LGBTIQ+ persons.
On-going cases:
- Namibia: Challenging refusal to allow same-sex partner to live and work in Namibia.
- Malawi: Case challenging sodomy provisions in Penal Code.
- Mozambique: Case challenging refusal to register LGBT organisation.
- Malawi: Case challenging the arrest of a transgender person on the charge of soliciting for an immoral purpose.
Completed cases:
- Botswana: Challenging criminalisation of same-sex sexual relationships.
- Eswatini: Challenging the refusal to register an advocacy group
- Botswana: Two cases challenging State’s refusal to change gender marker of transgender persons.
- Zimbabwe: Action for damages for unlawful arrest of transgender person.
- Botswana: Case challenging the refusal to register an LGBT organisation.
- Malawi: Case challenging arrest of couple on sodomy charges.
- Zambia: Case challenging arrest of couple on sodomy charges.
- Zambia: Support activist’s right to freedom of expression.
Publications:
- Key issues related to sexual orientation, gender identity and expression identified by a community consultation in Zambia (2022).
- Media guide (2021)
- Legal gender recognition in Botswana: An analysis of law and policy in the context of international best practice (2020).
- Legal gender recognition in Lesotho: An analysis of law and policy in the context of international best practices (2020).
- Key issues related to sexual orientation, gender identity and expression identified by a community consultation in Malawi (2020).
- The recognition of customary marriages in Zimbabwe and the proposed marriage bill (2019).
- Accountability and redress for discrimination in healthcare in Botswana, Malawi, and Zambia (2016).
- Laws and policies affecting transgender persons in Southern Africa (2016).
- Using the Court to protect vulnerable people: perspectives from the judiciary and legal profession (2014).
Submissions