Botswana’s High Court will today hear arguments to end the country’s laws banning same-sex relations.

A gay man known only as LM filed the case against Botswana’s Attorney-General. LM contends that three particular sections of the Botswana Penal Code were unconstitutional.

Those sections refer to ‘unnatural offences’ and ‘carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature’. They are usually applied to homosexual sex. People convicted under those laws face up to seven years in jail.

LM will argue that the laws which prevent him from having a consensual same-sex relationship violate his ‘constitutional rights, including, the right to equal protection of the law and freedom from discrimination, the right to liberty and the right not to be subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment’.

LGBTI advocacy organization, Legabibo, will present evidence during the court case. ‘LEGABIBO would present factual and legal evidence that will assist the Court in making its determination,’ the organization said in a statement. Read more via Gay Star News