Fear and Loathing in Uganda: Proposed Law Abrogates Basic Human Rights

Shock, anger, frustration, protests. Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill, tabled by ruling party MP David Bahati, has unsurprisingly seen global condemnation over the last few months.

The bill proposes a seven-year jail term for anyone who "attempts to commit the offence" or who "aids, abets, counsels or procures another to engage in acts of homosexuality."  Under the proposed law, “promotion of homosexuality,” including publishing information or providing funds, premises for activities, or other resources, is also punishable by a seven-year sentence or a fine of US$50,000. The bill seeks to apply the death penalty handed down for the crime of “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as a sexual assault committed against a member of the same sex who is under 18 or disabled. An HIV test would be forced upon anyone found guilt of the offense of “homosexuality."

It is the blatant disregard for both the Uganda Constitution and international law that is most striking in this bill.  Prohibiting “promotion of homosexuality” undermines the rights to free speech, expression, association and assembly. Prohibiting “funding and sponsoring of homosexuality,” undermines Uganda's public health efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The bill also introduces the obligation to report a homosexual within 24 hours of knowing someone's sexual orientation. It even permits Ugandan law enforcers to arrest and charge a Ugandan citizen or permanent resident who engages in homosexual activities outside the borders of Uganda.

The bill is nothing short of discriminatory and stigmatizing, its objectives drawing upon stereotypical notions about homosexuality and homosexual relations. It aims to prohibit homosexual behavior and related practices in Uganda which are deemed a “threat to the traditional family.”  Although the Bill aims “to safeguard the health of Ugandan citizens from the negative effects of homosexuality and related practices,” it is hard to believe that the Bill's drafters actually considered homosexuals as Uganda citizens. Indeed, if they had, they would consider the inevitability that this Bill, if passed, would drive homosexuals underground and further away from HIV prevention programs and essential medical treatment for those affected by AIDS, including life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs.

The international community should be particularly alarmed at the bill's attempt to outright prohibit the ratification of any LGBT rights-protecting treaty and most shockingly, nullify previously ratified treaties if considered “contradictory to the spirit and provisions” of the bill.

Effectively, if the Committee on Economic, Social and Culture Rights were to state that the right to the highest attainable standards of health belonged also to homosexuals, or the Children's Rights Committee promotes scientifically-based sex education that does not condemn homosexuality or if the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination were to state that lesbian women have a right to found a family and decide the number and spacing of their children, this bill states Uganda will withdraw its ratification or file a reservation to the treaty. This is nothing short of Uganda making a mockery of the international human rights system. The potential application of the death penalty, a blatant violation of the right to life, is yet another example of how this bill flouts basic human rights.

The bill has been condemned by a number of African organisations which promote equality for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people, including Sexual Minorities Uganda, Inclusive and Affirming Ministries (IAM) and The Rainbow Project of Namibia, all of which may become illegal for “promoting homosexuality” if the Bill is passed. When the bill was condemned by the US Embassy in Kampala in late October, the Ugandan Ethics Minister James Nsaba Buturo's response was to dismiss the very notion of human rights: "We are really getting tired of this phrase ‘human rights’. It is being abused. Anything goes, and if you are challenged? 'Oh, it's my right'”.

Yet, draconian anti-homosexuality laws are not new to Uganda. Homosexuality, or "carnal knowledge against the order of nature," as it is described under Section 140 of the Uganda Penal Code, is already illegal and can be punished with imprisonment of up to 14 years. Therefore, if the bill is rejected, homosexuals remain targets under the law. What these months of debate have revealed is the environment of fear in which homosexuals in Uganda have to live. According to Amnesty International, the existing law fosters arbitrary arrest and detention by police of men and women accused of engaging in consensual sex with another person of the same sex, with documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of lesbians and homosexual men in detention.

It is sad that in the same year that we have seen a momentous victory in India on these issues that we see the makings of an enormous setback for the human rights of all Ugandans. In the words of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, this Bill is an attempt to “wish away core human rights principles of dignity, equality and non-discrimination, and all Ugandans will pay a heavy price if this bill is enacted."