A Cook Islands select committee reviewing proposed amendments to the country's crimes act says the majority of public submissions call for male homosexuality to remain illegal in the country.
In a 2017 draft of the amendments, officials removed a provision criminalising same-sex relations between men.
But as Koroi Hawkins reports, the chair of the committee Tingika Elikana is recommending the government retain the provision.
NZ MP Louisa Wall, who is the architect of New Zealand's marriage equality laws, says members of the LGBTQI community are valued in Pacific cultures and the issue is not a matter of right and wrong but of equality and human rights. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
