President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda declared on Monday that he has enacted harsh new laws on homosexuality that were among the harshest in the world, drawing criticism from Western governments, LGBTQ organizations, and human rights organizations. 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 lawmakers 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.
A rights group announced later Monday that it had filed a legal challenge with Uganda’s High Court, arguing that the legislation was “blatantly unconstitutional”
A rights group announced later Monday that it had filed a legal challenge with Uganda’s High Court, arguing that the legislation was “blatantly unconstitutional”. “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,” said Adrian Jjuuko, executive director of the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum.
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. Josep Borrell, the head of the EU’s foreign policy, stated that the government of Uganda had “an obligation to protect all of its citizens and uphold their basic rights.” Failure to do so, he said in a statement, “will undermine relationships with international partners.”
Britain, the former colonial power in Uganda which criminalized homosexuality during its rule, said it was “appalled” and called the law “deeply discriminatory”. “It will increase the risk of violence, discrimination, and persecution, will set back the fight against HIV/AIDS,” Britain’s Minister for Development and Africa Andrew Mitchell said. The UN Human Rights Office, whose commissioner Volker Turk in March described the bill as “among the worst of its kind in the world”, also condemned its passage into law. “It is a recipe for systematic violations of the rights of LGBT people & the wider population,” the office said on Twitter.
It is “discriminatory and is a step in the wrong direction for the protection of human rights for all people in Uganda,” Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, deputy director for Africa at Human Rights Watch, said AFP. The adoption of this “deeply repressive law” is “a grave assault on human rights,” according to Amnesty International. But in Uganda, a country with a majority of Christians that has enacted some of the harshest anti-gay laws in Africa, where some 30 countries forbid homosexuality, the measure enjoys strong public support. “We have stood strong to defend the culture, values, and aspirations of our people,” parliament speaker Anita Among, one of the bill’s main proponents, said in a statement.
Museveni himself called gay people “deviants” when homophobic epithets were used in the debate over the law in parliament. The bill, according to Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, will “bring a lot of harm” to the already persecuted LGBTQ community in the nation. We are quite concerned, he told AFP. “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 groups that are found to be supporting same-sex activities risk a 10-year ban. After years of Museveni’s autocratic rule, civil society organizations in Uganda have not responded strongly.
However, the European Parliament warned that relations with Kampala were in jeopardy by voting in April to denounce the bill and requesting EU nations to put pressure on Museveni to not execute it. Asuman Basalirwa, the MP who sponsored the bill, said that aid cuts were expected and that Among, the parliament speaker, had already been informed her US visa had been revoked. 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 gaining independence from Britain in 1962, there has never been a conviction for consenting to same-sex behavior.