Uganda (Common Wealth) _ Human rights and LGBTQ organizations condemned Uganda’s announcement on Monday that President Yoweri Museveni has signed into law against homosexuality regarded as among the world’s worst.
President of the United States Joe Biden demanded the immediate repeal of the laws he denounced as “a tragic violation of universal human rights” and threatened to stop providing help and investment to the nation of east Africa.
The Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 was one of six pieces of legislation that Museveni’s administration confirmed the president had signed into law on Sunday.
This month, lawmakers enacted a revised version of the bill, pledging to fend off any outside meddling in their fight to defend Ugandan morals against Western immorality.
The revised version said that while “engaging in acts of homosexuality” would be a crime punishable by life in jail, identifying as gay would not.
Although Museveni had urged MPs to remove a clause designating “aggravated homosexuality” as a deadly offense, parliamentarians rejected that suggestion, meaning that repeat offenders might still receive the death penalty even though Uganda hasn’t used it in a while.
In a later statement on Monday, a rights organization said that the law was “blatantly unconstitutional” and that it had been challenged in court by the group.
Adrian Jjuuko, executive director of the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion, stated that “by criminalizing what we call consensual same-sex activity among adults, it goes against key provisions of the constitution including rights on equality and non-discrimination.”
A legal analysis of the law’s implications for “all aspects of US engagement with Uganda,” including services providing AIDS relief and other help and investments, was requested by Biden’s National Security Council, according to him.
According to him, the administration would also take into account imposing sanctions on Uganda and limiting the entry of foreign nationals who violate human rights or engage in corruption there.
The UN Human Rights Office denounced the bill’s passing into law, calling it “among the worst of its kind in the world” in a statement made by Volker Turk, the office’s commissioner, in March.
The office posted on Twitter, “It is a recipe for systematic violations of the rights of LGBT people & the wider population.”
The bill, according to Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, will “bring a lot of harm” to the LGBTQ community there, which is already subject to persecution.
“A person who is believed, alleged, or suspected of being a homosexual, who has not engaged in sexual activity with another individual of the same sex, does not commit the offense of homosexuality,” the updated measure stated.
A previous version mandated that Ugandans report any alleged gay conduct to the police or risk a six-month prison sentence.
The reporting requirement was changed by lawmakers to only apply to alleged sexual offenses against minors and other vulnerable individuals, and the maximum sentence was increased to five years in prison.
The maximum sentence for someone who “knowingly promotes homosexuality” is 20 years in prison, while organizations that are proven to be supporting same-sex activities risk a 10-year ban.
Following years of autocratic rule under Museveni, the response from civil society groups in Uganda has been muted, but the law has sparked criticism abroad.
With the warning that relations with Kampala were at risk, the European Parliament voted in April to denounce the bill and urged EU member states to put pressure on Museveni not to adopt it.
In a joint statement, UNAIDS, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) warned that the measure ran the risk of damaging Uganda’s progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Since Uganda gained independence from Britain in 1962, there has never been a conviction for consensual same-sex conduct, despite colonial laws that made homosexuality illegal in the country.
