Ugandan human rights activists, journalists, religious leaders, academics and lawyers are currently challenging the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which came into force in May, in court. The case, which enters its final pre-trial stage today, will soon go to trial.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act is one of the harshest anti-LGBT laws in the world and includes the death penalty for “serial offenders” or anyone having same-sex relations with a person with a disability, a child or an elderly person, including under the offence of “aggravated homosexuality”. The law also criminalises the vaguely worded “promotion of homosexuality”. This means that anyone who campaigns for the rights of LGBT people, including representatives of human rights organisations or those who provide financial support to organisations that do so, now faces up to 20 years in prison.
The petitioners challenging the law rightly argue that it violates fundamental rights guaranteed by the Ugandan constitution, including freedom from discrimination and the right to privacy, as well as freedom of thought, conscience and belief. They also rightly argue that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill violates Uganda’s obligations under international human rights law, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Convention against Torture, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Since the bill was introduced into parliament in March, local groups have reported an increase in anti-LGBT discrimination. The Strategic Response Team, a coalition of Ugandan LGBT rights organisations, reported in September that LGBT people have experienced ‘increased violence and discrimination’, including beatings, sexual and psychological violence, evictions, extortion, loss of employment and denial of access to health care because of their perceived or actual sexual orientation.
In August 2014, Uganda’s Constitutional Court struck down the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2013 on procedural grounds. However, Ugandan courts have yet to find a law ‘discriminatory’ on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, or on its merits. However, other African countries – South Africa, Angola, Botswana and Mauritius – have struck down laws criminalising consensual same-sex conduct on human rights grounds.
Given Uganda’s national and international human rights obligations, and in light of these important regional rulings, upholding the fundamental rights of all Ugandans should be at the heart of the Court’s consideration of this challenge to the Anti-Homosexuality Act.