Obama's wake-up call to Uganda
Human Rights Watch - 41 minutes ago
JUNE 25, 2014
Author(s): Maria Burnett
Published in: The Hill
In February, President Obama announced that Ugandan President Yoweri
Museveni's signing the Anti-Homosexuality bill into law would
"complicate our valued relationship with Uganda." On June 19, the US
finally announced what those "complications" look like: visa sanctions
for human rights abusers, including for violations of LGBTI rights and
those involved in public corruption, a $2.4 million cut in US aid to
the police, reallocation of some funds for the Health Ministry to
nongovernmental groups, and the cancellation of plans to conduct an
East African "military aviation exercise" in Uganda.
These steps bolster previous announcements cutting some aid to
Uganda's Interreligious Council
because of its support for the bill, to cancel a military conference
that had been planned in Uganda, and to redirect funding used to
support Health Ministry salaries.
Moving beyond rhetoric and condemnation of the law was urgently
needed. Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act stands out
from other homophobic legislation for its sheer breadth and ambiguity.
Not only does it increase the penalties for same-sex sexual conduct,
but the law criminalizes "promotion of homosexuality" with up to seven
years in prison without even defining what behavior or speech might
constitute "promotion."
Pressure for clarification has not worked. One diplomat recently told
me that, when he asked Ugandan government officials if counseling and
provision of condoms to a gay person is a violation of the
Anti-Homosexuality Act, "not a single official of the government from
the most senior on down has been able/willing to provide guidance."
For the Ugandan government to keep everyone walking on eggshells and
fearful of expressing divergent or critical views of the government
has become increasingly common. The Office of the Prime Minister
"suspended" some work by the Refugee Law Project (RLP), a
nongovernmental group that is part of Makerere University, after the
minister of ethics and integrity filed a complaint alleging that the
organization was "promoting unnatural relationships." RLP has helped
to coordinate some work to challenge the Anti-Homosexuality Act in the
constitutional court.
And the same day the US announced changes to its assistance, Rita
Aciro Lakor, executive director of Uganda Women's Network, was forced
out of a meeting at the Gender Ministry and questioned by police for
her work in publicly denouncing the ministry's permanent secretary who
had been implicated by a parliamentary committee during his previous
post in the Office of the Prime Minister.
The political backdrop of all of this is important: President Museveni
is entering his 28th year in power and his party has announced that he
will run again in the 2016 elections. There are serious concerns
about where Uganda is heading. Intimidation of journalists has marked
various episodes of Museveni's long tenure. Over a dozen members of
parliament have faced police interrogations and in some cases criminal
charges for speaking out or participating in demonstrations against
government policy. Opposition leaders have been placed under
"preventive" house arrest when trying to attend demonstrations or
address public gatherings. Police have responded to protests with
intimidation, arbitrary arrest, and unnecessary lethal force.
While the steps taken by the US show an overdue willingness to reflect
on Uganda's deteriorating human rights situation, much remains to be
done. There are still major questions about how US-funded public
health services can reach LGBTI people without discrimination and
without putting them at risk of criminal prosecution in light of the
Anti-Homosexuality Act's sweeping provisions. And given the importance
of the US-Uganda military relationship to President Museveni, changes
to military and security assistance should have been a larger part of
the equation. Despite consistent reports of abuses by the military and
the police, Uganda remains a close ally of the US military, which has
remained largely silent in the face of those abuses. In May, President
Museveni's son, who currently heads the Ugandan military's Special
Forces, was invited to attend a US military conference in Florida and
posed for photos with high-ranking US military commanders.
The review process sets an important benchmark - and shows a critical
willingness to re-evaluate the bilateral relationship on the basis of
rights concerns, not just strategic interests. But the US and other
donors to Uganda will need to continue to press for free expression,
assembly, and association in Uganda and take prompt action whenever
the authorities violate the rights of Ugandans, LGBTI or otherwise.
The announcement from the White House should be just the beginning,
not the end of this difficult road.
Maria Burnett is a senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch who
has long followed developments in Uganda.
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/25/obama-s-wake-call-uganda&source=s&q=Obama's+wake-up+call+to+Uganda+Human+Rights+Watch
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