Human rights leaders condemn Uganda’s new anti-gay bill as ‘among worst in the world,’ urge presidential veto

International human rights leaders on Wednesday condemned the Ugandan legislature’s passage of a bill imposing harsh penalties on homosexuality and urged President Yoweri Museveni to veto it.

“The passing of this discriminatory bill — probably among the worst of its kind in the world — is a deeply troubling development,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement, calling the “draconian” bill “devastating and deeply disturbing.”

Human Rights Watch asserted the bill “would violate multiple fundamental rights guaranteed under Uganda’s Constitution and international human rights instruments to which Uganda is a party.”

Under the bill, same-sex relations could bring down a 10-year prison term, with some activities punishable by life imprisonment or even death in the case of “aggravated homosexuality” — sex between people infected with HIV, as well as between members of other vulnerable groups.

“Attempted aggravated homosexuality” can carry a prison sentence of up to 14 years, and “attempted homosexuality” could net 10 years. “Homosexuality” in general could carry a lifelong prison sentence.

While some laws against homosexual behavior are already in effect, this legislation would make it illegal even to identify as gay and would require friends, family and community members to report same-sex relationships to authorities, BBC News reported.

Nearly all of the 389 legislators attending the packed parliamentary roll-call vote late Tuesday night supported the bill, which was similar to a bill passed in 2021 that further criminalized consensual same-sex relations.

Human rights advocates said this one is worse than its predecessors.

“If signed into law by the President, it will render lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Uganda criminals simply for existing, for being who they are,” Türk said. “It could provide carte blanche for the systematic violation of nearly all of their human rights and serve to incite people against each other.”

Amnesty International also condemned the legislation.

“President Yoweri Museveni must urgently veto this appalling legislation, which was passed following a rushed vote on Tuesday evening,” said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, adding that the so-called 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill “amounts to a grave assault on LGBTI people and is contemptuous of the Ugandan constitution.”

Museveni appears to favor the bill and has framed homosexuality as a corrupting import from the West. More than 30 of the 54 countries in Africa consider homosexuality a crime.

With News Wire Services