Legislating exclusion: Human rights implications of criminalizing same-sex relations in Africa with specific reference to Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ghana

The criminalisation of same-sex relations in Africa remains a critical human rights concern, reinforced by legislative frameworks that entrench discrimination, social exclusion, and violence against LGBTQ + persons. This article critically examines the human rights implications of criminalising same-sex relations in Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ghana, focusing on recent legislative, judicial, and enforcement trends in these jurisdictions. Using a doctrinal and comparative human rights approach, the study analyses constitutions, penal codes, special legislation, parliamentary bills, and case law. The article finds that criminalisation operates less through formal prosecutions and more through police harassment, administrative repression, and legitimised private violence, producing everyday conditions of fear, precarity, and exclusion. It further finds that variations in enforcement and legislative severity are shaped by political incentives, religious mobilisation, and institutional strength, rather than by legal texts alone. The study demonstrates that criminalisation systematically violates rights to dignity, equality, privacy, expression, and access to health, while disproportionately harming already marginalised groups, including transgender and economically vulnerable persons. The article contributes a comparative, enforcement-focused human rights analysis and identifies context-sensitive pathways for reform grounded in strategic litigation, civil society mobilisation, and regional human rights mechanisms. It argues that decriminalisation is both a legal and institutional possibility under identifiable political and judicial conditions.