Uganda's Anti-Gay Witch Hunt Has Officially Begun
VICE (US) - 1 hour ago
By Lauren Markham Jun 27 2014

The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power protests in New York City against
the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda. Photo via Wikicommons
On February 24, the Ugandan government finally succeeded in ushering
the long-debated Anti-Homosexuality Act
into law, which has been dubbed the "Kill the Gays Bill" by a torrent
of international critics for its early iterations' inclusion of the
death penalty for homosexuality. Though homosexuality has been illegal
since Uganda's first post-colonial Constitution was written, this new
law ups the penalties for being gay, including life imprisonment for
such "aggravated homosexuality" as recurring gay sex—and up to five to
seven years for advocating on gays' behalf.
Despite homosexuality's illegality, Uganda is home to a minority of
openly gay people including prominent gay activists
Clare Byarugaba and David Kato, who was murdered in 2011. When I was
studying in Uganda back in 2004 I had a few openly gay acquaintances
in the capital city, Kampala; in certain circles, it was possible to
be openly, albeit relatively quietly, gay.
But now simply advocating for or providing services to a gay person
can be interpreted as "promoting homosexuality," a crime with passage
of the new law. Already, civil rights organizations are being punished
for their advocacy on behalf of gays in Uganda. In two separate
letters dated March and May of this year, the government suspended
direct service activities of the Refugee Law Project, a Uganda-based
pioneer in international migration law and refugee protection, based
on allegations that the organization was "promoting homosexuality" in
refugee communities.
What, exactly, does the "promotion of homosexuality" look like? It's a
perplexing notion, and the law itself is troublingly vague. "As an
organization we already made clear our position that we don't even
believe it's possible to promote homosexuality," says Dr. Chris Dolan,
the Refugee Law Project's Executive Director—since homosexuality is
not a choice. "Of course we believe it is possible to protect the
rights of LGBTI people, and that that is our responsibility."
Though inhospitable to homosexuals, Uganda has long been a regional
hub for the desperate, with 265,000 refugees and asylum seekers
currently living in the country. Just look at a map of East Africa and
you'll see why: Uganda, which has been comparatively stable for the
past several decades under the presidency of Yoweri Museveni,
neighbors infamous conflict zones like the Democratic Republic of
Congo, South Sudan, Somalia, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Burundi.
But it's not just geography. Uganda has some of the more progressive
and hospitable refugee laws compared to other countries in the Great
Lakes Region. This is in part due to the work of the Refugee Law
Project, which has served as a watchdog for mistreatment of forced
migrants and an advocate for human rights issues, from sexual violence
in conflict zones to transitional justice in war-ravaged northern
Uganda to broadening the support for internally displaced people and
refugees in urban areas. (Full disclosure: ten years ago, while
studying abroad as a college student, I interned with the RLP for two
months, but have had no contact with the organization since.)
Now, all the Refugee Law Project's direct work with refugees has been
suspended, indefinitely, due to the allegations that they are not just
defending, but promoting homosexuality. The allegations, according to
the government, were made by an outside party, and officials have
launched an investigation—for a period of time that remains
indefinite. During the probe, the Refugee Law Project is not able to
do any direct service work with refugees of any persuasion. "We're
being punished before the investigation is even complete," says Dr.
Dolan.
LGBT refugees are some of the most vulnerable forced migrants—they are
often fleeing their country because they have been persecuted for an
unchangeable aspect of who they are into the arms of another country
where they might very well be persecuted again. Starting around 2008,
according to Dr. Dolan, the Refugee Law Project started advocating for
the rights of LGBT refugees (the organization runs many simultaneous
advocacy campaigns). In 2009, once the "Kill the Gays" bill was
launched into action through creepy back room talks with prominent
American Christians, the Refugee Law Project joined the Civil Society
Coalition, a union of over 50 Ugandan human rights organizations
advocating against the bill's passage. This public advocacy made the
Refugee Law Project a direct target once the law went through this
February.
In mid-2012, years before the law had even passed, the Minister for
Ethics and Integrity, Simon Lokodo, made a public announcement that he
wanted to close down the Refugee Law Project and the Civil Society
Coalition for their pro-gay advocacy. "In that sense, we were not
surprised," says Dr. Dolan.
On March 17, the Refugee Law Project issued a statement on behalf of
the Civil Society Coalition that began: "Dear Friends and Colleagues,
and all who fear living in a society that has no room for minorities…"
The letter announced the "historic petition" filed in Uganda's
Constitutional Court on March 11 against the law's passage, and links
to this video documenting the petition's filing.
On March 14—right between the petition's filing and the organization's
email blast—the Ugandan government sent its first letter to all
Refugee Settlement Commanders ordering the operations of the Refugee
Law Project suspended in the settlements. On May 20, they issued their
subsequent letter suspending direct service activities in the capital.
Interestingly, these letters of suspension came not from the Ministry
of Ethics and Integrity, but from the Minister of Relief, Disaster
Preparedness and Refugees—the office that, presumably, would be more
interested in overall refugee well-being than the relative fringe
issue of homosexuality.
"We work with all refugees—we don't carve out the ones that are easy
to work with," Dr. Dolan tells me. "We work with everyone based on
human rights and international law." Of the 3,000 registered clients
of the Refugee Law Project, homosexuals actually make up a very small
percentage, but as Dolan explains, "the whole refugee population that
constitutes our clients is being punished by this suspension."
The suspension of the Refugee Law Project's activities reflects the
broad brush stroke of this law, and its potentially devastating impact
on a subsection of the population. This suspension means that the
organization is not allowed to meet directly with any refugees, in the
camps or in the towns and cities, to conduct interviews, legal aid,
research, psychosocial support, therapy groups for victims of sexual
violence—or any other direct activities.
In the past six months alone, a single office of the Refugee Law
Project, the "Gender and Sexuality Project," has screened 1,237
refugees for experiences of sexual violence, "helped 87 clients who
reported sexual violence to access Post-Exposure Prophylaxis within 72
hours of the incident," and connected 309 survivors to support groups.
None of these activities are permitted to continue under the current
suspension. (The organization can still conduct academic research and
advocacy, so long as no contact with refugees is involved.)
Previously, the organization would open up its offices weekly for
local, unaffiliated refugee groups to use the space for community
meetings—this service, too, has gone out the window.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014 reads like the bluntest of satire:
"(1) A person commits the offence of homosexuality if— (a) he
penetrates the anus or mouth of another person of the same sex with
his penis or any other sexual contraption; (b) he or she uses any
object or sexual contraption to penetrate or stimulate sexual organ of
a person of the same sex; (c) he or she touches another person with
the intention of committing the act of homosexuality. (2) A person who
commits an offence under this section shall be liable, on conviction,
to imprisonment for life.
" Intent to commit homosexuality?
"Attempt to Commit Homosexuality" is also criminalized, as is "Aiding
and abetting homosexuality," "Conspiracy to engage in homosexuality"
and, of course, "Promotion of homosexuality." The US government is
troubled by the law and its enforcement, and has already announced aid
cuts and other sanctions on Uganda if the Anti-Homosexuality Act is
not overturned.
In a public statement issued on June 5, the Refugee Law Project
announced that the organization "considers [the] allegations baseless
and unlawful." Meanwhile, RLP is attempting to negotiate with the
government (the nature of which, for obvious reasons, Dolan does not
wish to comment on). In the agency's public statement about the
suspension, they say, "We respect the due process of law." But with a
law like this, "due process" is part of the trouble: just this week,
as Buzzfeed
reports, a Ugandan high court ruled that it is in fact legal for the
government to shut down activities of organizations deemed to be
promoting homosexuality.
It's safe to say that Uganda's anti-gay witch hunt has officially begun.
Follow Lauren Markham on Twitter.
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://www.vice.com/read/ugandas-anti-gay-witch-hunt-has-officially-begun-627&source=s&q=Uganda%27s+Anti-Gay+Witch+Hunt+Has+Officially+Begun+Vice+(US)
--
SIBOMANA Jean Bosco
Google+: https://plus.google.com/110493390983174363421/posts
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9B4024D0AE764F3D
http://www.youtube.com/user/sibomanaxyz999
***Online Time:15H30-20H30, heure de Montréal.***Fuseau horaire domestique:
heure normale de la côte Est des Etats-Unis et Canada (GMT-05:00)***
Posted by: Jean Bosco Sibomana <sibomanaxyz999@gmail.com>
| Reply via web post | • | Reply to sender | • | Reply to group | • | Start a New Topic | • | Messages in this topic (1) |
.To post a message: RwandaLibre@yahoogroups.com; .To join: RwandaLibre-subscribe@yahoogroups.com; .To unsubscribe from this group,send an email to:
RwandaLibre-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
_____________________________________________________
More news: http://www.amakurunamateka.com ; http://www.ikangurambaga.com ; http://rwandalibre.blogspot.co.uk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-SVP, considérer environnement avant toute impression de cet e-mail ou les pièces jointes.
======
-Please consider the environment before printing this email or any attachments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment