World Legal Map on legislations affecting LGBT people around the world
(by French newspaper Le Monde and ILGA)
*click here to enlarge
*Note that this Map reflects situation before 2004. According to State-sponsored Homophobia 2007 report, "consensual sexual acts between persons of the same sex in private were decriminalised in Cape Verde in 2004, Marshall Islands in 2004, Fiji in 2005 and Puerto Rico in 2005."
In Armenia, gay male sex was decriminalised in December 2002. Lesbian sex was never legally banned. An age of consent of 16 was set regardless of the gender of those involved.
The Armenian National Assembly has repealed article 116 of its criminal code which punished sex between men with up to 5 years in prison (Armenian legislation followed the corresponding article from the former Soviet Union). According to various reports, 7 men were sentenced in Armenia for gay sex in 1996, 4 in 1997 (Amnesty International 1999 Report on Armenia) and 4 in 1999 (Opinion of the Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee of the Council of Europe on the accession of Armenia - Doc. 8756 - 6 June 2000). After 1999, article 116 has no longer been put in practice.
On 28th June 2000 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe made repeal of article 116 a condition of Armenia's membership to the Council of Europe. With this repeal, the last remaining law in Europe criminalising same-sex relationships was repealed.
Just wanted to say Hi!
ReplyDeleteI am a mostly straight female in the UK, i'm interested in Armenia (not sure why, just am :)) and gay rights (that's because i have a lot of gay friends), found your blog and it's really interesting. :) I lived in Moscow last year with a gay man as my flatmate (and best friend there) so i know what they have to put up with in Russia...:( i'm really shocked to see how many countries still have laws against gays. :(
Regards
Rhiannon.
Hi Rhiannon! Thanks for your words :)
ReplyDeleteIndeed, this is really shocking map of the world... not the one that you normally see on front pages of world media... It's like a postcode lottery on global level for gay people – one may be fortunate enough to be born and live in the UK or Spain and be who s/he is, get married or partnered... but one may be unfortunate enough to be born, say, in Iran and get tortured and hanged...
Yes, you are right!!! :(
ReplyDeleteAnd i was shocked that places like Barbados and Jamaica etc still have laws against gays...:( Places that people from the UK or USA like to go on holiday, and which SHOULD be western countries! :(
Regards
Rhiannon.