about gabon
official name: Gabonese Republic capital: Libreville head of state: President El Hadj Omar Bongo state: multi party democracy population: 1,424,906 independence: from France in 1960 languages: French (official), Fang, Myene, Bateke, Bapounou/Eschira, Bandjabi religion: Christian 55%-75%, animist, Muslim less than 1% currency: Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF) media: NA
legal wise
status of homosexuality: legal age of consent: 15 (heterosexual) 21 (homosexual male and female)) laws covering homosexual activity: Homosexual conduct not mentioned in criminal law as being offence. Gabon has no sodomy law.
background information and government attitudes: Here is a provision from the penal code of Gabon, setting unequal ages of consent for hetero- and homosexual sex. The law came into force in 1969 (there was no specific mention of homosexual sex before that date) and may still be in force. Note, however, that I�ve dated it 1969-94, given that the last official publication I have is from 1994.
Penal Code 1969-94 Article 258: Whoever commits an indecent assault, real or attempted without violence, on a child of either sex under 15, shall be punished with imprisonment of 3 to 6 years. Whoever has perpetrated an act of gross indecency or an act against nature on an individual of his or her own sex under 21 shall be punished with imprisonment of 1 to 3 years.
(David John Frank, Associate Professor, Harvard University - February 2002) Source ILGA
communication
Main lines in use: 39,100 (2005) Cellular telephones: 649,800 (2005) Television broadcast stations: 4 (plus four low-power repeaters) (2001) Internet hosts: 322 (2006) Internet users: 67,000 (2005)
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