Same-sex marriage is illegal in Namibia, but the Supreme Court has ruled that the Namibian government must recognize same-sex unions concluded abroad.
The Supreme Court of Namibia had been seized by a couple of women, a Namibian and a German, who had married in Germany, and by a couple of men, a Namibian and a South African, who had united in South Africa, the only country in Africa where same-sex marriage is legal.
The Windhoek government refused to give non-Namibian spouses the right to reside in the country on the basis that same-sex marriage was prohibited there. The Supreme Court held that ” excluding foreign husbands or wives when the marriage had been legally concluded violated their rights to dignity and equality », given that a law allows foreign spouses to settle in Namibia.
This decision is a step towards the recognition of homosexual marriage in this country, where a law still represses homosexuality, without being applied. In stark contrast to Uganda, where a new law providing for the punishment of homosexuality with life imprisonment or even the death penalty is about to be promulgated. More than half of the states criminalizing homosexuality are in Africa. They are 32 to date on the continent.