A gay Namibian-Mexican couple won a part of their case at Namibia’s Supreme Court on Monday after the ruling that the government had discriminated against their residency application because one of the couple is foreign-born.
The court ordered the Home Affairs ministry to review Guillermo Delgado’s request for residency. He is in a couple with Phillip Lühl, a Namibian.
In Namibia, same-sex marriages are not recognized, and same-sex relationships are considered illegal, but the law is not enforced in the southwestern African country. If a foreigner is married to a Namibian, permanent residency is automatically granted to foreigners.
"It was a partial victory...We will have to see what the way forward is," said the couple's lawyer, Uno Katjipuka-Sibolile, referring to the Supreme Court ruling.
She is not happy with the verdict, she told The Namibian newspaper.
WON... A Mexican citizen who is in a same-sex marriage with a Namibian today won a Supreme Court appeal against the home affairs ministry's refusal to give him residence rights in Namibia. Lawyer Uno Katjipuka-Sibolile reacts to the judgement. More in our next edition. pic.twitter.com/4V5GkXR9Va
— The Namibian (@TheNamibian) March 7, 2022
But Katjipuka-Sibolile added that Home Affairs has already been “hostile” towards Delgado’s request, and questioned why he would have to go over the documentation again.
The ministry is slated to issue a statement later Monday.
Lühl and Delgado have already set a precedent in Namibia for LGBT rights after they won citizenship for their son, who was born to a surrogate in South Africa in 2019.
