From: Ron Buckmire <buckmr%rpi.edu@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Subject: Nicaragua Sodomy Law SIGNED!
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1992 18:52:33 GMT

Hadn't seen much about this recently...

/* Written 11:34 pm  Aug  6, 1992 by jbinder in cdp:queerplanet */
/* ---------- "Chamorro signs Sodomy Law" ---------- */


Urgent Press Release

August 7, 1992

Contact:        Enrique Asis, Latin American Coordinator,
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission
	(415) 255-8680

Nicaraguan President Signs Sodomy Law

Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro has signed into law a new
penal code that makes sodomy a crime punishable by up to four
years in prison.  The bill, which defines sodomy broadly as "the
cohabitation between individuals of the same sex," was passed by
the National Assembly on June 11 and sent to Chamorro, who signed
the legislation on July 8 without informing either the press or
the opposition Sandinista block.  Because the Assembly was in
recess until the first week of August, and because of what
activists describe as "chaos" and "anarchy" in the country, word
of the signing did not reach gay leaders until August 6.

"While other countries are making progress on human rights issues,
the Nicaraguan government is moving backwards by making homosexual
relations illegal," said Enrique Asis, Latin American Coordinator
of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
"States of the former Soviet Union have begun to repeal sodomy
laws, while Nicaragua is enacting Latin AmericaUs most repressive
anti-sodomy legislation."  Nicaraguan gay leaders were stunned to
learn that the bill had been signed into law without public
notice, blaming the government for trying to circumvent protest.
"They manipulated everything in a sleazy, underhanded way," said
Hazel Fonseca of Colectivo Nosotras, the country's main lesbian
group.

According the Nicaraguan law, the new code cannot be enforced
until it has been published, an event that has not yet occurred.
Following publication, opponents of the law have sixty days to
challenge its constitutionality before the Supreme Court.  The
Nicaraguan Center for Constitutional Rights plans to make such a
challenge, based on the guarantee of the right to privacy that is
stated in Article 11 of the country's constitution.

In addition, gay and lesbian activists plan to flood the
Nicaraguan courts with separate challenges to the new law.  They
will petition the courts to exempt them, as individuals and as
groups, from the anti-sodomy provisions, arguing that the law
violates not only their right to privacy, but also their human
rights guaranteed under international treaty.

Lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights believe that the
justices of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court may vote to overturn the
new law, especially if international pressure is brought to bear
upon them.

For more information, contact Enrique Asis, Latin American
Coordinator, IGLHRC, at (415) 255-8680 or (415) 281-0763, or
contact Milu Vargas at The Center for Constitutional Rights in
Managua at 505-2-26301.
---
RON BUCKMIRE
Association for the Prevention of the Sale of Clothing to Richard Grieco
54 Colvin Circle, Troy, NY 12180
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