Namibia's Supreme Court gives legal status to same-sex marriages

Same-sex marriages legally concluded outside Namibia must be recognised by the Namibian government, the country's Supreme Court has ruled in a historic judgment.

The home affairs ministry’s refusal to give official recognition to same-sex marriages concluded outside Namibia infringes on the constitutional rights to equality and dignity, four judges of the court stated in a judgment delivered on Tuesday. 

The court ruled that the marriages of two same-sex couples who got married in South Africa and Germany, respectively, must be recognised in Namibia, and that the non-Namibian partner in each marriage is recognised as the spouse of their Namibian partner under the country’s Immigration Control Act.

The court’s judgment gives non-Namibian spouses in same-sex marriages the same residence rights in Namibia that are accorded to spouses in opposite-sex marriages.

One of the five judges who heard the two appeals on which the court gave its decision dissented from the majority judgment, which was supported by four judges.