Criminal Code
Non-commercial, private, adult, and consensual homosexual relations are not illegal. The age of consent for any sexual act is 18. LGBT Rwandans, however, have reported being harassed, blackmailed, and even arrested by the police under various laws dealing with public order and morality.
On 16 December 2009, the national parliament debated whether to make homosexuality a criminal offense, with a punishment of 5–10 years' imprisonment. This legislation was similar to the controversial anti-homosexuality bill in the neighboring country of Uganda. Justice Minister Tharcisse Karugarama, however, condemned and refuted reports that the government intended to criminalize homosexual acts, saying that sexual orientation is a private matter, not a state business.
Read more about this topic: LGBT Rights In Rwanda
Famous quotes containing the words criminal and/or code:
“Think of admitting the details of a single case of the criminal court into our thoughts, to stalk profanely through their very sanctum sanctorum for an hour, ay, for many hours! to make a very barroom of the mind’s inmost apartment, as if for so long the dust of the street had occupied us,—the very street itself, with all its travel, its bustle, and filth, had passed through our thoughts’ shrine! Would it not be an intellectual and moral suicide?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... the self respect of individuals ought to make them demand of their leaders conformity with an agreed-upon code of ethics and moral conduct.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)