Gay sex legalised in Northern Cyprus
By Sam Rigby
Gay sex has been legalised in Northern Cyprus.
The ruling means that Europe is now completely free of laws criminalising gay sex, becoming the third continent to be free of such laws, Gay Star News reports.
Australasia and North America are the only other continents that have abolished laws prohibiting gay sex, with countries in South America, Asia and Africa still banning same-sex relations.
The ruling in Northern Cyprus comes 16 years after Southern Cyprus legalised gay sex in 1998.
Paulo Côrte-Real, Co-Chair of Europe’s International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA) executive board, said: “We welcome today’s vote and can finally call Europe a continent completely free from laws criminalising homosexuality. In 1981, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in its historic judgment in the Dudgeon v UK case that such laws are in breach of the European Human Rights Convention and must be abolished.”
“It took Europe 33 years to completely free the continent from these unjust and discriminatory laws,” he added.