In its detailed 2013 report entitled Making Love a Crime, Amnesty International reports that the “issue of homosexuality, the phenomenon is not ignored but is marginal. Families would never allow their children to be taken to court for such an offence, so no criminal ruling has ever been rendered, although it is provided for by law.”

Information on the treatment of Benin’s LGBTI population remains scarce, as per a 2003 report of the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board. In recent years, the US State Department found no evidence of prosecution, overt societal discrimination or violence based on sexual orientation. Though socially discouraged, homosexual conduct is reportedly neither prosecuted nor persecuted.

A growing number of persons in Benin have openly declared same-sex relations, although the LGBTI community has remained largely disorganised, according to the US State Department’s most recent report.

Nevertheless, Hirondelle Club Benin, an LGBTI association founded in March 2013 in Cotonou, reported as of April 2013 that 15 adolescents were evicted and driven to homelessness on grounds of their sexual orientation.

During the 2012 Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review, Benin was encouraged to decriminalise consensual same-sex acts and to promote educational programmes and appropriate policies to guarantee the security of its citizens regardless of their sexual orientation. The Beninese government has not expressed any clear intention to reform its laws, however.

We have not found any relevant case law at this time but welcome suggestions.