Uganda: Anti-Homosexuality Law Will Come at a Serious Cost
Human Rights Watch - 2 hours ago
If Museveni signs the Anti-Homosexuality bill, it would be yet another
blow to fundamental human rights in Uganda. Uganda's international
partners need to show unequivocally that if this bill is passed, it
will not be business as usual with the Ugandan government.
Daniel Bekele, Africa director
(Nairobi) - Uganda's pending Anti-Homosexuality bill violates the
country's human rights obligations and is a barrier to advancing
critical public health goals.Uganda's international donor partners
should clearly and publicly specify the consequences for relations
with Uganda if the Anti-Homosexuality bill becomes law. Uganda's
parliament passed the bill on December 20, 2013, and President Yoweri
Museveni has indicated that he intends to sign the bill.
The bill would increase penalties for some forms of consensual
same-sex conduct between adults, curtail constitutionally protected
rights to privacy, family life, and equality, and violate the rights
to freedom of association and expression. Museveni's government, over
his 28 years in office, has increasingly suppressed freedom of
assembly, expression, and association and threatened civil society
groups working on a range of issues, including corruption, land, oil,
and good governance. This bill is the latest troubling sign of
disregard for fundamental human rights protections.
"If Museveni signs the Anti-Homosexuality bill, it would be yet
another blow to fundamental human rights in Uganda," said Daniel
Bekele, Africa director. "Uganda's international partners need to show
unequivocally that if this bill is passed, it will not be business as
usual with the Ugandan government."
Uganda's constitution, in article 29, contains strong protections for
freedom of expression, conscience, and belief. The Ugandan Human
Rights Commission, Uganda Law Society, and the Foundation for Human
Rights Initiative have all publicly criticized the Anti-Homosexuality
bill as unconstitutional.Because the bill criminalizes the undefined
"promotion" of homosexuality, there are far-reaching implications
beyond the increase in punishments for same-sex sexual conduct. If the
bill is passed, a person could go to prison simply for expressing an
opinion. Public health promotion and prevention efforts targeting "at
risk" groups might have to be curtailed, and health educators and
health care providers could be at risk of criminal prosecution.
Local and international nongovernmental organizations doing advocacy
work on human rights issues would be similarly in peril. A range of
foreign-funded programs, especially in the health and human rights
sectors, would likely be forced to end their work or face criminal
sanction because the bill's criminalization of promotion blatantly
curtails the rights to free expression for anyone in Uganda, including
foreigners.
Uganda's international partners, including the United States, the UK,
and the EU, have consistently condemned the bill over the many years
it has been pending in Uganda's parliament. On February 17,
President Barack Obama said the bill's passage would "complicate" the
US-Uganda relationship, but did not specify the precise consequences.
The US and other international donors routinely engage with the
Ugandan government on a range of security and counterterrorism issues
across Africa.
The US should strongly demonstrate its concern for Uganda's
deteriorating human rights environment by temporarily recalling the US
ambassador and the US Agency for International Development Uganda
director to Washington, DC, for strategic consultations.. Uganda's
Civil Society Coalition for Human Rights and Constitutional Law,
consisting of 51 local nongovernmental groups opposed to the bill, has
also recommended such a recall.
The US should also review funding assistance to Uganda to ensure that
US funding is not used to further prosecution of anyone under the law.
In particular funding for the police should be subject to close
scrutiny as they would be legally mandated to enforce this law. All
US-funded health research, especially related to HIV, might also need
to be re-reviewed by ethics committees to examine if research
participants face negative consequences from the law or if health
personnel are at risk of prosecution.
"There is real urgency now that Museveni has stated his intention to
sign the bill," Bekele said. "The US should temporarily recall the
ambassador to conduct strategic consultations on the US/Uganda
relationship, while making clear the range of concerns for yet another
clawback to human rights in Uganda."
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