UGANDA: COURT FAILS TO REPEAL CALLOUS ANTI-LGBTI LAW, PUTS PEOPLE AT RISK

The AHA was approved by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni on 30 May 2023. In December 2023, proponents of equality filed a petition in the Constitutional Court to challenge the constitutionality of the law. The petitioners argued that the law violates rights guaranteed in Uganda’s constitution, including freedom from discrimination and rights to privacy as well as freedom of thought, conscience, and belief

Responding to a decision by Uganda’s Constitutional Court to only revoke parts of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 (AHA), a law which prompted rising attacks against LGBTI people, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, said:

“We are dismayed that the Court has turned its back on its responsibility to fully uphold Uganda’s Constitution which protects the human rights of all people, including rights to equality and non-discrimination, protection of personal liberty, protection from cruel or degrading treatment, and privacy.

We are dismayed that the Court has turned its back on its responsibility to fully uphold Uganda’s Constitution which protects the human rights of all people, including rights to equality and non-discrimination, protection of personal liberty, protection from cruel or degrading treatment, and privacy.

Tigere ChagutahAmnesty International's Regional Director for East and Southern Africa

“It is shocking that an opportunity was missed to revoke a law that undermines the rights of LGBTI persons in Uganda, their allies, human rights defenders and activists by criminalizing consensual same-sex acts, ‘promotion’ of homosexuality with all its vagueness as an offence and contemplates the death penalty for the offence of ‘aggravated homosexuality’.

“As we mark the 10th anniversary of the African Commission’s Resolution 275 on the protection against violence and human rights violations against persons on the basis of their real or imputed sexual orientation or gender identity, the Government of Uganda must repeal the entire Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 and ensure accountability for the attacks against LGBTI people.”

The Government of Uganda must repeal the entire Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 and ensure accountability for the attacks against LGBTI people.

Tigere Chagutah

Background

The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 is one of the most extreme anti-LGBTI laws in the world in scope and penalties.

The AHA was approved by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni on 30 May 2023. In December 2023, proponents of equality filed a petition in the Constitutional Court to challenge the constitutionality of the law. The petitioners argued that the law violates rights guaranteed in Uganda’s constitution, including freedom from discrimination and rights to privacy as well as freedom of thought, conscience, and belief.

In the days following the debate and passing to date, Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF), a Ugandan NGO, has documented 55 arrests under the law, three death penalty cases forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions, eight forced anal examination cases, 254 evictions of persons accused to be or associate with LGBTI people and 202 other cases of actual or threatened violence.

Since a similar anti-LGBTI law, the Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, was revoked in 2014, there have been repeated efforts to further criminalize homosexuality. This includes the Sexual Offenses Bill in 2021 which criminalized any “sexual act between persons of the same gender,” as well as anal sex between people of any gender, with a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.