Homosexuality may soon cease being a crime in the North African country of Tunisia, where gay sex is currently punishable by up to three years in prison.
The decriminalization of homosexuality was one of several progressive changes recommended to Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebi by the country’s Individual Freedoms and Equality Committee (also known by the acronym COLIBE), a presidential commission comprised of legislators, professors and human rights advocates.
In its final report, the committee also recommended abolishing the death penalty, giving women more rights and dismantling patrilineal citizenship and inheritance.
“Some laws pose an assault on the sanctity of individuals’ privacy, including their sexual relations,” the report, published earlier this month, states. The report specifically cites article 230 of the country’s penal code, which criminalizes same-sex sexual activity.
Bochra Belhaj Hmida, a member of Tunisia’s parliament and the president of the COLIBE committee, told NBC News the report's top recommendation regarding homosexuality “is the outright repeal of article 230.” The committee did, however, propose a second option that would amend article 230 by lowering the punishment from three years in prison to a cash fine of 500 dinars (around $200) and no risk of jail time.
“The state and society have nothing to do with the sexual life amongst adults … sexual orientations and choices of individuals are essential to private life,” the COLIBE report states. “Therefore the commission recommends canceling [article 230], since it violates the self-evident private life, and because it has brought criticism to the Republic of Tunisia from international human rights bodies.”
Neela Ghoshal, acting director of the LGBTQ rights program at Human Rights Watch, said article 230 is a holdover from Tunisia’s French colonial period.
“There is little record of its early enforcement, but we do know that since at least the mid-2000s, when LGBT civil society groups began to operate in Tunisia and started tracking arrests, Tunisian law enforcement officials have prosecuted people under article 230 much more aggressively than in many other countries, where such laws are a colonial holdover that are rarely implemented,” Ghoshal explained. Read more via NBC