Background
In 2011, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) published a comparative law casebook on national court decisions that addressed questions concerning sexual orientation, gender identity (SOGI) and justice.1 This initial SOGI casebook consisted of 108 case summaries from 41 countries across a variety of regions, covering a span of more than forty years. It recognized that public interest litigation over human rights mattered to issues of SOGI and vice-versa, and that this type of litigation was being waged increasingly in domestic courts and not just before regional and global human rights bodies.
In the present collection of case summaries, we have focused on 20 cases from domestic courts in eleven countries in Africa. Each chapter in this Casebook begins with a general introduction to human rights questions relevant to sexual orientation and/or gender identity and/or gender expression and/or sex characteristics (SOGIESC), followed by summaries of legal cases that discuss those issues. Each case summary sets out the legal issue/s raised by the case and the relevant domestic law, and then summarizes the arguments, judicial reasoning and ultimate decision in the case.
Purpose
This Casebook is intended for lawyers, judges and human rights activists – particularly those in the Global South – to better understand how to use the law to protect the human rights of sexual and gender minorities and to raise arguments in their domestic courts that are grounded in international and comparative law. The Casebook is also intended to promote public awareness and public interest litigation in defence of the human rights of sexual and gender minorities and to assist lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) individuals whose human rights have been violated to seek legal redress, including before the court.
Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, Gender Expression And Sex Characteristics And Justice