Botswana has taken a final, formal step in erasing one of its most unjust colonial inheritances. In 2026 C.E., the southern African nation officially removed the anti-sodomy provision from its national penal code — converting a court victory into permanent written law and closing a legal chapter that dated back to British colonial rule.
At a glance
- Botswana penal code reform: The government formally struck anti-sodomy language from the penal code in 2026 C.E., following the High Court’s unanimous 2019 C.E. ruling that the provision was unconstitutional.
- Colonial law removal: The original law was not a product of Botswana’s own traditions — it was imported under British rule in the 19th century C.E. and had threatened same-sex couples with up to seven years in prison.
- LGBTQ rights in Africa: Botswana now joins a small group of African countries that have gone beyond court decriminalization to formally cleanse discriminatory language from their statute books.
From court ruling to written law
When Botswana’s High Court struck down Sections 164 and 167 of the Penal Code in June 2019 C.E., the decision was unanimous and unambiguous. Judge Michael Leburu wrote that such laws “deserve a place in the museum or archives and not in the world.” The Court of Appeal upheld that ruling in November 2021 C.E., cementing it as settled law.
But a court ruling declaring a law unconstitutional is not the same as removing it from the books. The text can linger — a ghost statute that signals, however symbolically, that some citizens were once deemed criminal for who they are. Botswana’s 2026 C.E. action goes further: it formally excises that language, making the reform visible and permanent in the country’s written legal record.
This distinction matters. In many countries, Human Rights Watch has documented how unconstitutional laws that remain on paper are still used to harass, threaten, and stigmatize LGBTQ people — even when they can no longer be enforced. Botswana’s move removes that ambiguity.
What the law erased — and what Botswana is reclaiming
The sodomy provision was never rooted in Botswana’s own culture. It arrived with British colonialism in the 19th century C.E., imposed on a society where same-sex relations had long existed and, in many communities, were not viewed as shameful. The Khoikhoi and San peoples had distinct terms and, in some cases, rock paintings depicting same-sex relations between men. Among the Tswana people, traditional chiefs have said that homosexuality has always been part of Tswana society.
The 2019 C.E. High Court ruling acknowledged this directly — framing decriminalization not as the adoption of a foreign value, but as a recovery of something the colonial legal system had suppressed. The 2026 C.E. penal code reform extends that logic: it makes the erasure of colonial law a formal, documented act of the Botswanan state.
Amnesty International and other human rights organizations have long argued that the removal of anti-sodomy statutes — not just their judicial suspension — is essential to dismantling the infrastructure of state-sanctioned discrimination. Botswana has now done exactly that.
A pattern of legal progress
This action does not stand alone. Botswana’s judiciary has been moving in a consistent direction for years. In 2016 C.E., the High Court ordered the government to officially register LEGABIBO, the country’s primary LGBTQ advocacy organization, after officials had refused. In 2017 C.E., the courts ruled that transgender people have a constitutional right to change their legal gender — a decision that remains rare in African jurisprudence.
Botswana had also banned employment discrimination based on sexual orientation as early as 2010 C.E., one of the very few African countries to do so at that time.
Together, these milestones reflect a legal culture willing to read Botswana’s constitution — with its protections for liberty, privacy, and dignity — as a living document with real consequences for real people. The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance notes that constitutional rights become meaningful only when institutions enforce and codify them. Botswana continues to demonstrate what that looks like in practice.
Progress that still has further to go
Removing a law from a penal code does not remove stigma from a society. LGBTQ Batswana continue to face discrimination in housing, healthcare, and daily life, and legal equality does not automatically translate into safety or acceptance. The work of organizations like LEGABIBO — and the communities they serve — continues precisely because written law and lived experience often lag each other by years or decades.
More than 60 countries worldwide still criminalize same-sex relations, according to ILGA World’s annual report on state-sponsored homophobia. Botswana’s decision to formally remove its colonial-era provision is meaningful — but it also stands in relief against how much remains to be done globally.
Still, what Botswana has achieved — a court ruling converted into permanent statutory change — is the kind of concrete, documented progress that builds on itself. The law no longer simply fails to prosecute. It no longer contains the words at all.
Read more
For more on this story, see: LGBTQ Nation
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Ghana establishes a major new marine protected area at Cape Three Points
- Alzheimer’s risk cut in half by drug in landmark prevention trial
- The Good News for Humankind archive on Botswana
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