Our Proposal for the Penal Code Change was brought to the Parliament’s Agenda

On 25 October 2011, Communal Democracy Party leader Mehmet Çakıcı presented the proposal for changing the Penal Code, which aims at changing certain articles in Chapter 154 of the law, to the Chairperson of Parliament Hasan Bozer.

The proposal for removing the article which criminalizes same sex relations and extending the definition of rape in order to protect men in Chapter 154 of the Penal Code was developed by Initiative Against Homophobia in 2008. This was presented to former Chairperson of Parliament Fatma Ekenoğlu in 2008 and was later presented to Chairperson of Parliament Hasan Bozer in 2010 in order to be discussed with the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee.

Since 2008, as Initiative Against Homophobia, we have tried to create an appropriate environment for the law proposal to be discussed at the parliament. However, this law has been used to prosecute LGBT individuals and has become their nightmare since 2008. With this law, the TRNC Government has continued to violate human rights and has maintained its position as the only country within the European area who implements state sponsored homophobia.

The Communal Democracy Party Parliamentary Group presented the Penal Code Change proposal to Hasan Bozer to be discussed at the Parliament on behalf of Initiative Against Homophobia.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Communal Democracy Party leader and member of parliament Mehmet Çakıcı, member of parliament Hüseyin Angolemli and member of parliament Mustafa Emiroğulları for bringing up the proposal for the Penal Code change at the Parliament on behalf of Initiative Against Homophobia Association and for being sensitive about this issue.