Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Sudan face legal challenges not experienced by non-
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term is a ...
residents. In July 2020,
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
removed capital punishment for same-sex sexual activity,
as well as corporal punishment. Sodomy remains illegal and penalties of terms of imprisonment were retained. The maximum penalty, for a third offence, remains
life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
.
Law regarding anal sex
Sodomy, defined as anal sex whether the couple is same-sex or opposite-sex, is illegal in Sudan. The Offence is defined in Article 148 of the Criminal Act of 1991. The original wording (translated) of the sodomy law, as amended in 2009, follows: There were no documented cases of executions for sodomy, prior to repeal of capital punishment for the offence.
On 9 July 2020, Sudan abolished the death penalty as a punishment for anal sex.
The Sudanese Sovereign Council also eliminated the imposition of 100 lashes and added two years to the sentence for a second offence. The penalty for a third offence was changed from death or life imprisonment to life imprisonment. A first offence is now punished with up to five years and a second offence with up to seven years.
Sudanese LGBT+ activists hailed the reform as a 'great first step' but said it was not enough yet, and the end goal should be the decriminalisation of gay sexual activity altogether.
Historically
Nuba tribal society in the 1930s
Siegfried Frederick Nadel
Siegfried Frederick Nadel (24 April 1903 – 14 January 1956) was an Austrian-born British anthropologist, specialising in African ethnology.
Life and career
Siegfried Ferdinand Stephan Nadel was born on 24 April 1903 in Lemberg (Lvov), Gali ...
wrote about the
Nuba
The Nuba people are indigenous inhabitants of central Sudan. Nuba are various indigenous ethnic groups who inhabit the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan state in Sudan, encompassing multiple distinct people that speak different languages which b ...
tribes in the late 1930s. He noted that among the
Otoro Otoro may be,
* Otoro River, Honduras
*Otoro Nuba people
**Otoro language
The Otoro language (Utoro, Dhitoro, Litoro) is a Niger–Congo language in the Heiban family spoken in Kordofan
Kordofan ( ar, كردفان ') is a former province of ...
, a special
transvestitic role existed whereby men dressed and lived as women. Transvestitic homosexuality also existed amongst the
Moru, Nyima, and
Tira people The Tira are a sub-ethnic group of the Nuba peoples in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan state, in southern Sudan. The population of this group exceeds 100,000.
Language
They speak Tira of the Kordofanian languages
The Kordofanian languages ...
, and reported marriages of Korongo ''londo'' and Mesakin ''tubele'' for the
bride price
Bride price, bride-dowry ( Mahr in Islam), bride-wealth, or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dow ...
of one goat.
In the Korongo and
Mesakin Mesakin is an ethnic group in the Nuba Hills in Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. ...
tribes, Nadel reported a common reluctance among men to abandon the pleasure of all-male camp life for the fetters of permanent settlement. While not directly attributing the observed preference for camp life, Nadel highlighted two features of tribal life, as he viewed them, in connection with the preference: that it was a "matrilineal society... in which the fruits of procreation are not the man's", and "the strong emphasis on male companionship,...
ndalso,... widespread homosexuality and transvesticism."
Politics regarding LGBT rights
In the United Nations on 4 February 2011,
application for consultative status for the UN's Economic and Social Council was called for a vote.
Sudan then called for a No Action Motion to prevent voting on the consultative status for the LGBT group, and their motion passed 9–7, so the issue was not voted on.
Sudan has voted against every supportive resolution of
LGBT rights at the United Nations
Discussions of LGBT rights at the United Nations have included resolutions and joint statements in the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), attention to the expert-led human rights mechanisms (such ...
.
Social attitudes
Same-sex sexual relations policies have divided
some religious communities. In 2006, Abraham Mayom Athiaan, a bishop in South Sudan, led a split from the
Episcopal Church of Sudan for what he regarded as a failure by the church leadership to condemn homosexuality sufficiently strongly.
The
U.S. Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
's 2011 human rights report found that:
In the 2019 Arab Barometer Survey, 17% of Sudanese said homosexuality is acceptable.
Rights groups
The first LGBT association of the country is Freedom Sudan, founded in December 2006. However, no internet presence is seen from the group after 2013 on its Facebook page. Another group, Rainbow Sudan, was founded on 9 February 2012.
Its founder, known as Mohammed, described the work and aims of the group:
"...
have groups that work online and offline. We form a small network of people working in an organized way to advance as much as possible LGBTQ issues, to show who we are, to stop discrimination, to see our rights recognized. We provide sexual education, psychological and emotional support, protection." Internet presence for Rainbow Sudan discontinued after January 2015.
Summary table
See also
*
Human rights in Sudan
Sudan's human rights record has been widely condemned. Some human rights organizations have documented a variety of abuses and atrocities carried out by the Sudanese government over the past several years under the rule of Omar al-Bashir. The 2 ...
*
LGBT rights in Africa
With the exception of South Africa and Cape Verde, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Africa are limited in comparison to the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
Out of the 55 states recognised ...
References
External links
"Rainbow Sudan", the Sudanese LGBT Association{{Africa topic, LGBT rights in
LGBT in Sudan
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
Human rights in Sudan
Law of Sudan
Politics of Sudan
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...