Uganda scraps "sexist" adultery law

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda scrapped an adultery law Thursday that campaigners said discriminated against women.

Uganda's Constitutional Court ordered the changes to the Penal Code, under which it was legal for a married man to have an affair with an unmarried woman but against the law for a married woman to have an affair with an unmarried man.

"Section 154 of the Penal Code Act which penalizes married women on the offence of adultery is discriminatory," the Constitutional Court said in its ruling.

Women found guilty of the offence had previously faced a fine or up to a year in jail.

The ruling came after a legal challenge filed against the east African country's attorney general by a group of female lawyers.

Their lawyer, Ladislaus Rwakafuzi, said the old rules had given cheating husbands a green light to pursue single women.

"Discrimination concerning sexual relations amounts to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment contrary to the law," he told Reuters after the verdict. "Our success today is historic."

The court also scrapped parts of a law that gave men more rights than women if their partner died.