Section 171 of The Criminal Code of Cyprus - Court Challenge

Court Challenge

Section 171 did not apply to women and did not criminalize lesbian sex. Although rarely enforced, it was challenged in the European Court of Human Rights by a Cypriot man named Alecos Modinos. The Court handed down its judgment in Modinos v. Cyprus on April 22, 1993, and overwhelmingly ruled by eight votes to one that Section 171 violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protected people's right to privacy. The judgment followed the opinion reached by the Court in two other similar cases: Dudgeon v. the United Kingdom (1981) and Norris v. Ireland (1988). Ironically, Section 171 had been cited by Turkish Cypriot Judge Mehmet Zeka in his dissenting opinion in the Dudgeon case to oppose the Court's invalidation of Northern Ireland's anti-buggery laws. Judge Zeka had argued that, as a Cypriot, he was in a "better position in forecasting the public outcry and the turmoil which would ensue if such laws are repealed or amended in favour of homosexuals either in Cyprus or in Northern Ireland. Both countries are religious-minded and adhere to moral standards which are centuries' old".