A criminal code from a Geneva pen
A man from Valais wrote Ethiopia a criminal code in 1958. Unlike in Switzerland, it punished homosexuality.
On 5 May 1958, a new criminal code came into force in Ethiopia. It was meant to lead Haile Selassie's empire into the modern age. But it had been written not by an Ethiopian, but by a man from Valais.
Jean Graven, born in Sion, taught criminal law at the University of Geneva and presided over the Geneva Court of Cassation. In 1953, the Negus commissioned him to draft a criminal code and a code of criminal procedure for Ethiopia. The result was promulgated in July 1957 and came into force almost ten months later. Its most important model was the Swiss Criminal Code of 1937, supplemented by elements from France, Scandinavia and other countries.
On homosexuality, of all things, the Ethiopian code took a different path from its model. In Switzerland, consensual acts between adult men had been unpunished since 1942, as long as the then age of consent of 20 was respected. The law for Addis Ababa, by contrast, contained a chapter on so-called sexual deviations. Article 600 threatened same-sex acts with imprisonment.
This is also remarkable because Ethiopia was never a European colony. Many bans in Africa go back to British colonial law. Here, by contrast, an independent state wrote the provision into law itself, with a Swiss as its architect.
The line held. The revised criminal code of 2004 also criminalises same-sex acts, expressly including between women. For a long time it was hardly applied. In 2023, however, the US State Department reported arrests and the closure of venues considered queer-friendly. The police in Addis Ababa even set up a hotline for reporting such activities.
Graven died in Marrakesh in 1987. His code shaped Ethiopian law for decades. For queer people, its effects are still felt today.