Solomon Islands
- Statute: Section 153 "buggery"
- Penalty: 14 years
- Restrictions:
Section 153 Penal Code criminalizes "buggery" with a penalty of
up to 14 years' imprisonment. Section 154 prohibits "attempts to buggery
and indecent assaults" with a penalty of up to 7 years' imprisonment.
Section 155 punishes acts of "gross indecency" in private or public,
with up to 5 years' imprisonment. (PB) Section 155 was amended in 1989 to
include females as well as males. (Anita Jowitt - communication of 2 Nov 98)
The inclusion of lesbian sex in Section 155 followed a challenge to that
Section, on the basis that it was discriminatory against males:
"Director of Public Prosecutions v Noel Bowie [1988] Solomon Islands
Law Reports 113:
s 155, relating to gross indecency between males was challenged in Court as
it contravened the Constitution, being discriminatory against males. In the
lower court the section was declared invalid, however, on appeal, s155 was
interpreted as being invalid only to the extent that it applied exclusively to
males.
"I am sure that, had the legislature been considering s 155 in pursuance
of the Constitution, it would still have made gross indecency a criminal
offence…. It may well be that in 1963 the Legislature did not even consider
the question of acts of gross indecency between females…"
"The Solomon Islands case of Noel Bowie is the only case I am aware of
in which the decriminalisation of homosexuality is considered [in the Pacific
Islands]. There the courts did alter the Penal Code so as to make it non
discriminatory, but did this by making it non gender specific." (Anita
Jowitt - communication of 2 Nov 98)
http://www.ilga.org/Information/legal_survey/asia_pacific/solomon_islands.htm#*Laws
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