If the law is approved by the country’s president, punishments ranging from one year to life imprisonment and death for homosexuals will be imposed in Uganda
03/22/2023 11:06, updated 03/22/2023 11:07
KAKUMA REFUGEE CAMP, KAKUMA, TURKANA COUNTY, KENYA 2018/10/14: Ugandan LGBT refugees pose in a protected area of Kakuma refugee camp in northwest Kenya. They fled Uganda after the 2014 AntiGay Law. The Kakuma refugee camp in northwest Kenya is home to more than 180,000 refugees and asylumseekers from countries such as Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Somalia. (Photo by Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Uganda has passed legislation providing a range of penalties for homosexuals, who may face prison sentences ranging from a year to life imprisonment or even the death.
The project, approved by the country’s parliament this Tuesday (March 21), strengthens the government’s powers in pursuing the LGBTQI+ community in the Christianmajority country.
The new law will ban “any form of sexual relations between two persons of the same sex” in the country, as well as the “recruitment, promotion and financing” of practices related to homosexuality.
In addition to the death penalty proposed in the bill, people can be sentenced to life imprisonment for “committing the crime of homosexuality.” The new penalties also include 20 years in prison for anyone involved in “homosexual acts,” seven years in prison for attempting “to carry out the act,” and three years in prison for children convicted of homosexual acts.
“The law also provides penalties to prohibit acts that expose children to homosexual acts and imposes a 10year prison sentence on a person who recruits a child with the aim of involving him or her in the homosexual act,” one said published statement by the country’s parliament.
Only two of the country’s 389 lawmakers opposed the project, which discriminates against the LGBTQI+ community.
According to Odoi Oywelowo, one of the MPs who voted against the antiLGBTQI+ law, the new legislative package violates “the rights of Ugandans, particularly freedom of expression”.
UN condemns project
Before voting on the law, UN Human Rights Watch said the new laws criminalizing homosexuals violate the right to freedom of expression in Uganda and would facilitate violence and violations of the rights of the LGBT+ community.
“The rights at stake include the right to freedom of expression and association, liberty, privacy, equality and protection from discrimination and inhuman and degrading treatment,” the panel said in a statement.