2.8. LGBTIQ+ persons

Legislation on same-sex sexual acts and judicial practice

Article 152 of the Sudanese Criminal Act as amended by Law 12 of 2020 criminalises ‘indecent and immoral acts’ for ‘anyone who commits an act of a sexual nature in a public place or issues signals with sexual meanings that cause harassment of the public’s feeling or public modesty’ while article 151 criminalises ‘gross indecency’.587

Article 148 of the Sudanese Criminal Act of 1991 criminalises ‘sodomy’.588 Before 2020, the punishment for sodomy included flogging for first and second conviction, and capital punishment for third conviction. Law No 12 of 2020 amended certain provisions of the Sudanese Criminal act and removed flogging and capital punishment as possible sentences and replaced them with up to five years imprisonment for first time offenders, seven years imprisonment for second time offenders, and up to life imprisonment for third time offenders.589

In a book published in 2022 titled ‘Queer lawfare in Africa’, the authors also stated that there was no widespread enforcement of article 148 of the Criminal Act in Sudan, but rather that persons with diverse SOGIESC ‘faced risk of arrest and harassment by public order police’ on the basis of several articles of the Criminal Act related to ‘honour’ and ‘morality’.590

The 1991 Criminal Act as amended in 2009 was reportedly used to criminalise same-sex activities for both men and women.591 While the corporal and capital punishment were abolished from the legislation in 2020, it was still reported by NGOs that flogging was being used for offenses of ‘sodomy’.592 In 2014, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) noted that two other legal provisions of the Criminal Act had been used at times to prosecute LGBTIQ+ persons: Article 153 on ‘material and displays that violate public morals’ and Article 156 on ‘seduction’.593 These legal provisions were amended in 2020 and still in effect.594 For additional information see below (d) Freedom of expression on SOGIESC.

Legislation on same-sex partnership

There is no legal framework in relation to same-sex partnerships in Sudan, but same-sex marriage is not recognised, making it de facto unavailable.595 The Sudanese personal status law defines marriage as ‘a contract between a man and a woman’.596

The Sudanese legislation does not allow transgender persons to change their legal gender.597 The Sudanese Criminal Act of 1991 states under the ‘interpretation and explanations’ section (Art. 3) that ‘“man” means the adult male, and “woman” means the adult female’.598

ILGA World Database noted that name change was ‘nominally possible’ through judicial procedure, based on Article 30 of the Civil Registry Act of 2011 stating that ‘no correction or amendment shall be made in the civil registry except by a final ruling from the competent court that the original registration falls in the area of its jurisdiction’.599

Article 153 of the Sudanese Criminal Act of 1991 as amended by the Amendments Law of 2020 criminalises ‘materials and displays that violate public morals’. The provision imposes penalties of fines and imprisonment of up to one month for making, designing, trading or possessing such material, and up to three years of imprisonment for ‘whoever deals in materials that violate public morals or manages an exhibition, theater, cabaret, showroom, or any public place that violates public morals or allows it to be presented’.600 Equaldex reported that this Article was used to censor the expression of LGBTIQ+ issues in Sudan.601 An incident was documented in 2021, where a Sudanese newspaper was suspended for three days after reporting on a demonstration in Khartoum where demonstrators demanded the abolition of article 148 of the Criminal Act.602