From Reuters:
“Sri Lanka Supreme Court clears path for decriminalisation of
homosexuality”
(Sri Lankan Police stand guard in front of the Supreme Court,
while the party members of the deposed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe-led
United National Party handover a petition against the President Maithripala
Sirisena's decision to sack the parliament, in Colombo, Sri Lanka November 12,
2018.)
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court has given the green light to a bill
seeking to decriminalise homosexuality, the speaker of parliament said on
Tuesday, in a move hailed as a "historic development" by campaigners.
LGBTQ+ rights activists in Sri Lanka have been campaigning for years to change
the law in a country where homosexuality is still punishable by a prison
sentence and a fine, leading to the private member's bill presented in parliament
last month The Supreme Court, after hearing more than a dozen petitions on both
sides of the argument, ruled it was not unconstitutional, Speaker of Parliament
Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said. “The Supreme Court is of the opinion that the
bill as a whole or as any provision thereof is not inconsistent with the
constitution,” the speaker told parliament.
The decision is seen as a "historic development that has
created hope towards real change", said Kaveesha Coswatte attorney-at-law
and advocacy officer for iProbono in Sri Lanka, which supported many of the
petitions backing the bill. Activists will still have to lobby for support from
the 225 parliamentarians to push forward the proposed legislation through
parliament. Neither the government nor the opposition have made any comment on
whether they support the bill, proposed for consideration by an individual
member of parliament, so the next steps for it to eventually become legislation,
or not, are not yet clear. "But the door is finally open. This Supreme
Court decision is major for the community in terms of any kind of progress they
have seen over the last couple of years," Coswatte added.
^ This is a step in the right direction. I hope Sri Lanka
follows through and decriminalizes Homosexuality. ^
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