Outcry as Uganda's anti-gay bill signed into law

AFP
Mon, 29 May 2023

The amended bill was passed by parliament earlier this month

Uganda announced Monday that President Yoweri Museveni had signed into law draconian new measures against homosexuality described as among the world's harshest, prompting condemnation from human rights and LGBTQ groups.

The passage of the anti-gay bill came despite warnings from Uganda's international partners, including close ally the United States, of repercussions should the controversial proposals become law.

Museveni's office said in a statement the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 was among six pieces of legislation the president signed into law on Sunday.


Lawmakers passed a new draft of the legislation earlier this month, vowing to resist what they said was outside interference in their efforts to protect Uganda's values from Western immorality.

Museveni had instructed parliament to rework the bill, although most of the hardline provisions that caused an outcry in the West were retained.

The amended version said that identifying as gay would not be criminalised but "engaging in acts of homosexuality" would be an offence punishable with life imprisonment.

Although Museveni had advised lawmakers to delete a provision making "aggravated homosexuality" a capital offence, lawmakers rejected that move, meaning that repeat offenders could be sentenced to death.

Uganda has not resorted to capital punishment for many years.

A rights group announced later Monday it had filed a legal challenge with Uganda's High Court arguing that the legislation was "blatantly unconstitutional".

"By criminalising what we call consensual same-sex activity among adults, it goes against key provisions of the constitution including rights on equality and non-discrimination," said Adrian Jjuuko, executive director of Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF).

- 'Deeply repressive law' -

The UN Human Rights Office -- whose commissioner Volker Turk in March described the bill as "among the worst of its kind in the world" -- condemned its passage into law.

"It is a recipe for systematic violations of the rights of LGBT people & the wider population," it said on Twitter.

Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, Africa deputy director for Human Rights Watch, told AFP it was "discriminatory and is a step in the wrong direction for the protection of human rights for all people in Uganda".

Amnesty International also said the signing of this "deeply repressive law is a grave assault on human rights".

But the legislation enjoys broad public support in devout, majority Christian Uganda, which has pursued among the toughest anti-gay legislation in Africa where around 30 nations ban homosexuality.

"We have stood strong to defend the culture, values and aspirations of our people," parliament speaker Anita Among, one of the bill's strongest proponents, said in a statement.

- Living in fear -

Discussion of the bill in parliament was laced with homophobic slurs, and Museveni himself referred to gay people as "deviants".

Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, said the law would "bring a lot of harm" to the country's already-persecuted LGBTQ community.

"We feel so, so, so worried," he told AFP.

The revised bill said "a person who is believed or alleged or suspected of being a homosexual, who has not committed a sexual act with another person of the same sex, does not commit the offence of homosexuality".

An earlier version also required Ugandans to report suspected homosexual activity to the police or face six months' imprisonment.

Lawmakers agreed to amend that provision and instead the reporting requirement pertained only to suspected sexual offences against children and vulnerable people, with the penalty raised to five years in jail.

Anyone who "knowingly promotes homosexuality" faces up to 20 years in jail, while organisations found guilty of encouraging same-sex activity could face a 10-year ban.

- Aid cuts -

Reaction from civil society in Uganda has been muted following years of erosion of civic space under Museveni's increasingly authoritarian rule.

But internationally, the law provoked outrage.

The European Parliament voted in April to condemn the bill and asked EU states to pressure Museveni into not implementing it, warning that relations with Kampala were at stake.

The White House also warned of possible economic repercussions if the legislation took effect.

A 2014 anti-gay bill signed into law by Museveni but later struck down prompted foreign aid cuts by Western nations, and diplomats have warned similar measures are being considered now.

Asuman Basalirwa, the MP who sponsored the bill, said aid cuts were expected and that Among, the parliament speaker, had already been informed her US visa had been revoked.

The bill also risked undermining progress in combating HIV/AIDS in Uganda, warned UNAIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Homosexuality was criminalised in Uganda under colonial laws, but there has never been a conviction for consensual same-sex activity since independence from Britain in 1962.

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