Mali has passed a new law criminalising consensual same-sex sexual activity. The new Penal Code was adopted by the National Transitional Council in October 2024 and published in the Official Journal in December.
Article 325-2 of the Penal Code 2024 prohibits consensual same-sex sexual activity between both men and women. The law defines indecent assault to include ‘any act of an unnatural sexual nature committed with a person of the same sex,’ though the sentence for this act remains unclear.
This new law is a devastating setback for the human rights and safety of LGBT people in Mali. This move positions Mali amongst the most regressive nations, in a world where these criminal laws are being gradually eliminated.
The law was passed by an overwhelming majority of the National Transitional Council. Minister of Justice Mamadou Kassogué reinforced the Council’s stance, declaring, ‘Anyone who indulges in this practice, by promoting it or condoning it, will be prosecuted. We will not accept that our customs and our values are violated by foreign persons.’
Mali did not criminalise same-sex sexual activity when it gained independence from France in 1960. Criminalisation was initiated by the current military government, in power since 2021. This development makes Mali the 31st country in Africa to criminalise consensual same-sex intimacy and takes the total number of criminalising jurisdictions to 64.
Prior to this legislation, LGBT people in Mali w under vague morality laws. While no known prosecutions have taken place, discrimination and violence against LGBT Malians were already prevalent. According to a 2023 AfroBarometer report, intolerance towards LGBT people in Mali was at 91%. Additionally, the 2023 U.S. State Department Human Rights Report documented significant abuses against LGBT people, including physical, psychological, and sexual violence, which included so-called ‘corrective’ punishment (by which violence is used to attempt to ‘correct’ someone’s sexual orientation).
