At the end of May, the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, signed the Anti-Homosexuality Law, new legislation that institutionalizes the persecution of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTIQ+) people and more generally promotes a culture of hate.
The law is one of the toughest anti-LGBTIQ+ laws in the world. Criminalizes consensual same-sex relationships and imposes severe penalties, including life imprisonment for anyone who engages in same-sex intercourse and the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as homosexual acts involving infected individuals with HIV, children or disabled people. Equally troubling is the broad and vague clause that prohibits the “promotion of homosexuality” and mandates a prison term of up to 20 years for offenders.
Beyond being punitive, this anti-homosexuality legislation violates the constitutional rights of Ugandans, including the right to privacy, not to be discriminated against or treated in a cruel and demeaning manner, and to be presumed innocent. Likewise, by criminalizing the promotion of homosexuality, the Anti-Homosexuality Law closes the debate, limits access to HIV-related services, and curtails freedom of expression, thought, assembly, and association.
The Act also breaches several regional and international human rights treaties to which Uganda is a party. These include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, that prohibit all discrimination based on sex (which, as interpreted by the UN Commission on Human Rights and the courts, includes sexual orientation).
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The devastating impact of this draconian law on the LGBTIQ+ population in Uganda cannot be overestimated. The Ugandan government has sanctioned popular justice and individuals fear that expressing their sexuality or gender identity could put them at risk of violence.
The introduction of the bill in parliament in early March has already precipitated an increase in anti-homosexual human rights violations: between March 21 and April 20, the Forum for Awareness and Promotion of Human Rights documented 59 arrests, evictions and illegal attacks against the LGBTIQ+ community.
Coding discrimination is by no means an aberration in Uganda, where the LGBTIQ+ population has long grappled with social homophobia and a lack of legal protections. The country’s first anti-homosexuality legislation was, in fact, inherited from the British colonialists.
Codified in the 1950 Penal Code, and later strengthened in the 1990s, the law imposes various punishments for same-sex acts, categorizing them as “against the order of nature.” The pressure for tougher legislation has intensified in the last ten years. In December 2013, the Ugandan parliament passed the 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act, with punishments for homosexual behavior nearly as severe as the 2023 version.
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But the Constitutional Court later repealed it, arguing that there was no parliamentary quorum at the time of the vote. Since then, populist lawmakers have repeatedly introduced similar bills.
Funded by Western right-wing and religious groups, these self-serving Ugandan politicians employ inflammatory homophobic rhetoric under the guise of defending “African values” from what they perceive to be the Western imposition of LGBTIQ+ rights. However, they do not recognize that homophobia is a legacy of Western colonialism.
The role of Christian fundamentalist groups in exporting hate and homophobia to Africa was fully demonstrated at a recent inter-parliamentary conference on family values in Kampala. Family Watch International, an Arizona-based organization deemed an anti-LGBTIQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, helped fund and organize the event, attended by religious leaders, youth activists and parliamentarians from more than 20 African countries.
The attendees demanded that their governments criminalize homosexuality and same-sex unions, and implement stricter penalties for having same-sex sexual relations, further marginalizing and stigmatizing the LGBTIQ+ community and fostering a context of fear and hostility.
For all the talk about an anti-African cultural agenda, the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act is ultimately a distraction from issues like soaring inflation, an under-resourced healthcare system, and increased insecurity. The Ugandan government has historically used sexual minorities as scapegoats to divert attention from public criticism of its failed policies and to build support.
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By targeting a group marginalized by denigration, the Government intends to create a common enemy and manipulate pre-existing prejudices to defend its political interests.
Still, despite escalating threats, the fight for LGBTIQ+ rights in Uganda continues. Human rights activists in the country have launched legal action to challenge the constitutionality of the Law. The outcome remains uncertain, but there is hope that, as with the previous legislation from 2014, the new law will not survive.
The LGBTQI+ community and sexual minority rights activists in Uganda are to be commended for their resilience and unwavering determination. But to achieve a truly inclusive society, Ugandans need to reject discriminatory ideology and embrace the principles enshrined in the country’s constitution: equality, dignity, inclusion and tolerance. Only a shared commitment to equality and justice can guarantee freedom for all.
AUTHOR: SARAH KIHIKA KASANDE
© PROJECT SYNDICATE – KAMPALA
Human rights lawyer, head of the Uganda office of the International Center for Transitional Justice and co-founder of Uganda Chapter Four, a human rights organization focused on protecting civil liberties.
Countries that criminalize the LGBTIQ+ community
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) collects information from around the world on laws that affect people because of their sexual orientation.
Although, since they began to collect the data, there is a positive trend –as it happens in South America–, since more and more countries in the world decriminalize relationships between people of the same sex, there are still many regions in the world that criminalize them.
In fact, according to the latest Ilga report (2023) in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria and Yemen, their penal codes specify that there is a death penalty for consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex. In 5 other countries – Qatar, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and the United Arab Emirates – the death penalty is a possibility, due to their interpretation of sharia or Islamic law. That is to say that, although there is no legal certainty, it could happen.
In addition, the organization ensures that the LGBTIQ+ community continues to be the object of persecution in 64 countries of the world that are members of the United Nations (62 explicitly and 2 de facto), with sentences ranging from a few months in prison to the death penalty. . Of this number, the region with the largest number of States that criminalize these relationships is Africa, since 32 countries criminalize them, compared to 22 where they are legal. This continent is perceived as one of the most difficult regions for the people who belong to this community.
On the other hand, based on factors such as protection against discrimination, the criminalization of violence against the LGBTIQ+ community, among others, the German portal Spartacus published its latest edition of the ‘Gay Travel Index’, in which it measures the legal situation and the living conditions of community members. This allows them to classify countries as liberal and friendly or very dangerous for people belonging to sexual and/or gender minorities to visit or live in. According to this index, in 2023 the most dangerous country for the LGBTIQ+ community is Brunei, followed by Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.
AUTHOR: SUNDAY WRITING
TIME
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