Constitutional Court Strips Law on Insulting Women's Modesty

What the report says

Uganda’s Constitutional Court has struck down Section 115 of the Penal Code Act, finding that the provision on “insulting the modesty of a woman” unlawfully protected only women and therefore discriminated against men. In its ruling delivered on Wednesday, the court said the wording conflicted with the Constitution’s equality guarantees and directed the government to move quickly to amend the law.

The case was brought by petitioners including Kampala lawyer Steven Kalali, who argued that the section singled out women for legal protection while leaving men without comparable safeguards against similar conduct. The court accepted that argument and ordered the Attorney General to present a Bill to Parliament that would extend protection to both sexes and more clearly define the offence.

The decision has wider relevance because Section 115 had been used in a closely watched dispute involving Uganda Law Society president Isaac Kimaze Ssemakadde and now-Principal Judge Jane Frances Abodo. According to Nile Post, the private prosecution against Ssemakadde was filed after remarks he allegedly made in 2024 at a public symposium in Kampala. That case helped bring renewed attention to how the law was being applied.

More broadly, the ruling adds to ongoing debate in Uganda over gender equality in criminal law and the need for offences to be framed in a way that avoids unequal protection based on sex.