Uganda’s “anti-homosexuality” bill sent back to parliament

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni returned the sweeping “anti-homosexuality” bill to the nation’s Parliament for changes. The legislation has received international outcry for its severe penalties, catch-all phrasing, and concerns it could devastate the HIV response in the country.

Parliament passed the bill on March 21 and then it was sent to Museveni to sign into law, veto or send back.

The bill prescribes life imprisonment for consensual relations between people born of the same sex and the death penalty for those engaged in what legislators call “aggravated homosexuality” — which includes a “serial offender” of consensual sex, and same-sex relations with someone with a disability, mental illness, of older age, or if a person contracts a terminal illness, among other circumstances.

If someone has a “reasonable suspicion” another has “committed or intends to commit the offense of homosexuality” they are obligated to report that person or face a hefty fine or half a year in prison. “Promotion of homosexuality” has a sentence of up to 20 years, and organizations face fines of 1 billion Ugandan shillings ($268,000), and cancellation of operational licenses. A landlord who “knowingly leases or subleases” to those who “encourage homosexuality” also faces imprisonment.

Museveni has called people who identify as LGBTQ+ “deviants,” and his wife praised the bill as helping the country to resist “evils imposed” on children. But the Attorney General’s office told Museveni multiple clauses in the bill are unconstitutional, including a mandatory death sentence.

Michael Aboneka, a Ugandan human rights lawyer, said the bill’s passage in March was rushed and he hopes this time there will be debate and wide public participation.

On Thursday, Museveni told members of Parliament from the ruling party’s National Resistance Movement caucus they should “be ready to sacrifice to fight homosexuals,” according to a press release sent out by the State House on Thursday. He encouraged them to reject “pressure from the imperialists.”

Museveni has said the presence of the LGBTQ+ people in the country is a result of foreign influence.

“Europe is lost and they also want us to be lost. Those who want an easy life will end up being prostitutes,” the president said.

But the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation is part of an “orchestrated attack emanating from foreign western hate groups,” according to Stephanie Musho, a human rights lawyer.

Earlier this month, politicians from 22 African nations gathered in Uganda for the first parliamentary conference focused on “family values and sovereignty” hosted by the American-based Family Watch International, which is considered an anti-LGBT hate group fixated on pushing its agenda in African nations. The conference featured anti-LGBTQ+ conversations. Following the conference, a member of Parliament from Kenya submitted a bill largely mirroring Uganda’s to his own national assembly.

Museveni said he will sign the bill into law once a few changes are made, including “amnesty” for those who have “come out to be helped,” according to the press release. The current bill includes the imposition of “rehabilitation” on those convicted which sources told Devex is assumed to mean conversion therapy — a practice to change someone’s sexual orientation that has no scientific backing.

He encouraged the lawmakers to “quickly deal with those issues and we sign it.”

Deputy Attorney General Kafuuzi Jackson Karugaba wrote a letter on Thursday to the speaker of Parliament saying his office advised the president to return the bill to Parliament not because his office is “against” the bill but because they fear it won’t hold up in court.

Ugandan legislators have been trying to push this kind of legislation in multiple forms, under the guise of family values and protecting children. In 2014, Museveni signed into law legislation previously dubbed the kill the gays bill because its original version also included the death penalty. But the constitutional court annulled the law because Parliament lacked the necessary quorum.

Karugaba said imposing a mandatory death penalty is unconstitutional, because it strips the judiciary of the opportunity to use its own discretion on sentencing. In the letter, he wrote that death sentences should only be used in the “rarest of the rare” cases.

He also said the clause punishing landlords is problematic because it would be hard to determine who is responsible in a place “where you find more than one person” like a convent or school. The duty to incriminate others for “acts of homosexuality” violates the constitution, he said, because it’s “too broad and vague.”

Some don’t see the move to send the bill back to Parliament as progress.

“Make no mistake, the only safe version of this Bill is no Bill at all. The Attorney General is not talking about ‘toning down’ the Bill. He is referring to changes that would make it more clear about incarcerating, erasing, and violating the human rights of LGBTIQ+ people,” said Asia Russell, executive director of Health GAP, an international advocacy organization, in an email to Devex. “Parliament and the President should shelve this Bill once and for all.”

The bill’s passage by Parliament has already caused damage. Following the passage of the bill, some LGBTQ+ people have already stopped seeking services for fear of police raids or harassment, and some health workers have turned away patients for fear of penalties.

“Mere passage by Parliament has already resulted in violent vigilante acts and shuttering of HIV prevention and treatment services,” Russell said.

Health experts are concerned that with the “promotion” and forced incrimination of others portion of the legislation, services such as the provision of contraceptives and pre-exposure prophylaxis, testing, and treatment for HIV, among other services, could land a provider in prison.

The press release from the State House said Museveni told members of Parliament they should brace for cuts to the health sector because “promoters of Homosexuality are threatening to cut their aid to Uganda.”

The U.S. Government’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, is the largest funder of Uganda’s HIV response, investing about $400 million annually.

“One of the things they’re threatening is to kill our 1.2million people who have been surviving on PEPFAR funds to buy drugs for HIV/AIDS, so that we don’t buy the drugs for our people, and they die,” Museveni said.

At a recent event, Jessica Stern, the U.S. special envoy to advance the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons, said “If this bill was signed into law, it will be an action-forcing event.”

Alexandrina Iovita, human rights adviser with the Community Rights and Gender Department at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said they are working with partners in Uganda to strategize on how to adapt services and strengthen the security of those who are implementing programs. She said they are taking “​​a hard look at the kinds of activities that could put some implementers at risk.”

“We’re not considering pulling funding from Uganda,” Marijke Wijnroks, the Global Fund’s head of Strategic Investment and Impact Division, added.

By Sara Jerving

SEE ALSO:

• Aidsmap: Patient navigators help MSM engage with HIV care in Uganda, but anti-gay bill threatens progress
• An open letter to President Yoweri Museveni from the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+)