Homosexuality has been decriminalised by the Crime Decree which came into effect at the beginning of the month.

Former High Court judge Nazhat Shameem has clarified that unlike the Criminal Penal Code which had sentences and punishment set aside for sodomy and unnatural offences, there were no such provisions in the Crime Decree.

"So what has happened is that homosexuality has been decriminalised making people of the same sex to engage in sexual practices as long as both parties are consenting to it," Ms Shameem said.

She added that in 2005, during a High Court ruling, Justice Gerard Winter in the appeal of Thomas McCosker's case, an Australian who visited Fiji and was arrested, tried and sentenced to two years jail for sodomy, ruled that the act of sodomy should not be contained in the laws of Fiji as the nature of the sexual activity was consensual.

"The Crime Decree has brought forward what Justice Winter ruled," Ms Shameem said.

"It can be said that the McCosker case was the precedent for the change in laws."

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