The United Nations (UN) has become the first international law body to rule that criminalising lesbian sex is a violation of human rights.
On 23 March, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), a UN committee, determined that countries outlawing women having sex with other women are breaching human rights.
The judgement was made in relation to Sri Lanka’s Penal Code, which in Section 365 punishes “carnal intercourse against the order of nature” and in Section 365A, “any act of gross indecency”.
It dates back to 1883 and is rooted in British colonial rule, with the two provisions being understood as the criminalisation of consensual same-sex intercourse.