The brand new regulation additionally imposes life imprisonment as punishment for anybody discovered to have carried out a sexual act with an individual of the identical gender, and as much as seven years in jail for “an try and commit the offense of homosexuality.”
“The individuals of Uganda have spoken,” tweeted parliamentary speaker Anita Annet Amongst, asserting that President Yoweri Museveni had signed the laws. “I now encourage the responsibility bearers below the regulation to execute the mandate bestowed upon them within the Anti-Homosexuality Act.”
Uganda’s parliament initially handed the invoice in March nevertheless it was returned to legislators by a presidential veto. The ultimate invoice, authorised by Museveni, stays largely the identical however now not features a requirement for individuals to report gay exercise or criminalizes merely figuring out as LGBTQ+.
President Biden launched a press release condemning the regulation. “This shameful act is the most recent improvement in an alarming pattern of human rights abuses and corruption in Uganda,” Biden mentioned. “I’ve directed my Nationwide Safety Council to guage the implications of this regulation on all elements of U.S. engagement with Uganda.”
Its passage into regulation Monday sparked concern and confusion amongst LGBTQ+ Ugandans, a lot of whom have already fled the nation.
“The information implies that I’ll by no means see dwelling once more,” mentioned a 32-year-old homosexual asylum seeker talking to The Washington Put up by cellphone from the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. He spoke on the situation of anonymity.
“I left Uganda in 2018; it was a scary time for me. I really feel the concern, like that morning I ran away from my dwelling. I’m within the refugee camp for the time being and by no means felt so disillusioned in my life,” he mentioned.
“I really feel extraordinarily scared,” mentioned Jude, 38, who requested to be recognized solely by his first identify to guard his id, talking by cellphone from the identical refugee camp on Monday.
“It’s a tragedy on our story and full neighborhood,” he mentioned. “I’ve no possibility in Uganda.”
In keeping with the Human Dignity Belief, a London-based nongovernmental group that screens the authorized standing of LGBTQ+ individuals in several international locations, same-sex exercise has been punishable by life imprisonment in Uganda since 1950, when the regulation was inherited from British colonial statues. The group mentioned there’s substantial proof of the earlier regulation getting used to arrest and arbitrarily detain LGBTQ+ individuals, however precise prosecutions are uncommon.
Western officers and nongovernmental organizations condemned the act, with some arguing that Uganda’s stigmatization of LGBTQ+ individuals threatened the well being of individuals dwelling with HIV there. “Uganda’s progress on its HIV response is now in grave jeopardy,” mentioned Winnie Byanyima, govt director of UNAIDS, in a joint assertion signed additionally by the leaders of the World Fund to Battle AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS and the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Aid.
“LGBTQI+ individuals in Uganda more and more concern for his or her security and safety, and growing numbers of individuals are being discouraged from looking for important well being providers for concern of assault, punishment and additional marginalization,” they mentioned.
Variations of Monday’s laws focusing on LGBTQ+ individuals have been round in Uganda since 2009. In 2014, Museveni’s authorities handed an identical regulation, whose first iteration included the loss of life penalty for some offenses — however was struck down by the courtroom for not following due parliamentary course of.
Eric Gitari, an LGBTQ+ activist in Kenya, mentioned in a press release: “It’s an indication of democracy in retreat. An assault on the Rule of Legislation. A political name to arrest and violate the rights of LGBTQ Ugandans. This has set a nasty precedent in different African international locations which might be contemplating comparable legal guidelines equivalent to Kenya.”
“Nonetheless in the future we will defeat these assaults on our human rights and triumph in equality and inclusion for LGBTQ individuals inside African international locations,” he added. “This superb have to be our guiding mild on this second of darkness and tears.”
Niha Masih contributed to this report.
