Homosexual relations will no longer be punishable by law in the Cook Islands, following a decision by the Pacific Ocean territory’s parliament to scrap a law criminalising sex between men.
It is “a historic day in Parliament,” Prime Minister Mark Brown said after the decision on Friday.
In a message posted on Facebook, Brown highlighted his government’s pledge to “stomp out discrimination against the LGBT community in our society and uphold our Constitutional commitments to human rights.”
The Cook Islands have a population of about 17,000 and lie between New Zealand and Hawaii.
Same-sex relationships there could be punished with up to five years in prison under the Crime Act 1969 while people hosting sex acts between men on their premises faced up to 10 years in jail under the same law.
In many of the neighbouring islands, same-sex relationships are still repressed, a legacy of the colonial era. This is the case, for example, in Samoa, Tonga and the Solomon Islands.
