15 Apr Northern Cyprus to legalize gay sex
The government of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is set to decrliminalize gay sex.
Homosexuality is to be legalized in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), if the measures drawn by government are approved.
The new amendment, drawn up by the Prime Ministry’s European Union (EU) Coordination Centre, would repeal Articles 171, 172 and 173 of Chapter 154 of the TRNC Penal Code that prohibit male same-sex acts.
The EU has previously been putting pressure on the TRNC to legalize gay sex.
There are currently two legal challenges to these provisions pending before the TRNC Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) respectively.
In the unlikely event the legal measures will not be approved, the legal challenges are likely to eventually force the government of Northern Cyprus to legalize gay sex.
The local LGBTI organization, Queer Cyprus along with the UK’s The Human Dignity Trust, had lodged the case before the ECtHR on behalf of an anonymous applicant.
Öncel Polili, a Turkish Cypriot lawyer part of the legal team bringing the EctHR case has stated that: ‘It is unlikely to be a coincidence that the TRNC Parliament drafted a bill in order to repeal the relevant articles of the criminal code immediately after it was communicated to them that the HDT lodged a case to the European Court of Human Rights’.
The ECtHR, through a 27 February 2013 communication, has invited the Turkish Government to submit their written observations on admissibility and merits of the whole case. The Court has decided to address the question of violation of right to privacy (Article 8).