Crime or Human Right?

To the Nigerian state, consensual sexual activity among persons of the same sex is against the order of nature and must be punished as a crime. On the other hand, to persons who engage in sexual activity with persons of the same gender and to rights' activists, the act is a right, like any other, which should be respected and protected. This chapter examines the cultural issues, the human rights angle, and the future of the criminalization of same-sex sexual conduct conundrum in Nigeria. Using the doctrinal method of legal research methodology, the chapter reviews laws criminalizing homosexuality in Nigeria in juxtaposition with human rights provisions both in the international and domestic context in search of a solution to the problem. Accordingly, it is recommended that while the law should protect cultural values, human rights are sacrosanct and must not be sacrificed.

The Impossible Trinity of Deception, Sex and Consent

During the last couple of centuries, the English law dealing with sexual conduct has made a decisive shift towards a ‘consent-based model’ of rape law. But strikingly, deceptive sexual relationships (DSR) have been untouched by this development as lately reaffirmed by the Court of Appeal in R v Jason Lawrence. If rape is defined as sex without consent, then DSR ought to be no exception, because the general proposition of law is that consent induced by deception is no consent at all. In making a case for the criminalisation of DSR, this article (1) arrays the lack of uniformity in court’s jurisprudence on DSR and (2) brings along the sexual autonomy theory to support its case.

Protecting the rights of LGBTIQ people around the world: Beyond marriage equality and the decriminalisation of homosexuality

Discussions about the human rights of LGBTIQ people tend to centre around two vastly different issues, namely, marriage equality and the criminalisation of same-sex sexual conduct. However, looking only at these two high-profile issues ignores the many pressing concerns facing LGBTIQ people around the world. This article identifies and analyses eight other human rights issues that urgently need addressing, in order to respect the rights of LGBTIQ people across the globe.

Early Marriage Among Sasak Boys in Rural North Lombok

Child marriage remains a pattern in parts of Indonesia despite recent legislative attempts to ban the practice. Previous studies of the phenomenon have primarily concerned girls. Against that research trend, this article seeks to shed light on early marriage among Sasak boys in rural north Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. It draws on the narratives of six young Sasak men who were married during their mid-teens. Our analysis focusses on the sustained and potent influence of traditional cultural and religious practices, gendered norms of romance and sexual conduct, and normalised early youth transitions in a context of inter-generational poverty.

Lifting the Burden? The Ethical Implications of Studying Exemplary, Not Pathological, Wartime Sexual Conduct

This chapter examines Angela Muvumba Sellström's fieldwork and encounters with non-state armed groups in Burundi, South Africa, and Uganda that established sexual discipline among their commanders and foot-soldiers. It reflects on ethical dilemmas of conducting research on “non-cases” of wartime sexual violence among armed groups that have regulated sex in wartime conduct. It focuses on the non-use of sex as a weapon of war that may acquit armed groups from other human rights violations they may have committed. The chapter mentions some sexual-violence survivors who are unwittingly silenced by a certain research focus even after the armed groups have regulated sexual conduct. It analyzes the regulation of sexual conduct that may be based on the male leadership of the armed group rather than female sexual autonomy, which may foster entrenched gender inequalities in society.

Sexual Offense and Sexual Conduct

This chapter focuses on the concepts of sexual offense and sexual conduct. An offense is sexual under my account if sex plays a role in how it is defined in a statute (i.e., as a type), rather than how it is carried out in a particular case (i.e., at the level of a token). There are three overlapping means by which sex can play a role in defining a criminal offense: it can prohibit sexual conduct directly (as in rape and adult incest), prohibit conduct that is preparatory to future illicit sexual conduct (e.g., the English offense of administering an involuntary intoxicant with the intention of subjecting a person to sex), or prohibit conduct that infringes on another’s right to sexual autonomy (e.g., indecent exposure). Sexual conduct, in turn, is defined “phenomenologically,” meaning that an act will be regarded as sexual if it is the kind of act that tends to fulfill an agent’s desire for sexual pleasure and is typically accompanied by physiological indicators of sexual desire.