Kanane v State, Court of Appeal, 2003 (2), BLR

The appellant had been charged under Botswana’s Penal Code with s. 164(c) ‘unnatural offences and s.167 ‘indecent practices between males’. The appellant argued that these sections were incompatible with the Botswana Constitution and that the Penal Code discriminates against men on the basis of their gender and offends their right of freedom of conscience, expression, privacy, assembly and association entrenched in the Constitution. The Court held that discriminatory legislation on the basis of gender violated the Constitution and that section 167 of the Penal Code was therefore unconstitutional. However section 164(c) was not deemed to be unconstitutional.