human rights
Uganda’s president revise anti-LGBT law
Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda, wants to sign an “anti-LGBT law” according to which homosexual acts could face the death penalty. photo
© Hajarah Nalwadda/AP/dpa
A new law could massively restrict human rights in Uganda. After criticism and warnings from abroad, President Museveni seems to be rowing back – albeit only marginally.
In Uganda, plans for a law that would carry the death penalty for homosexual acts are being revised again after heavy international criticism. President Yoweri Museveni announced on Thursday that he would only sign the law, which had already been passed by Parliament, after amendments had been made. However, the core should obviously not be changed.
The Attorney General had expressed concerns that the law could be legally contestable, Musevei said in the evening in the capital Kampala. Homosexuals who voluntarily seek medical treatment should not be criminalised. The governing party NRM (National Resistance Movement) announced that it would “improve” the text after consultations with the president. It remained unclear which passages should be changed exactly and when the law should now come into force.
The East African country’s parliament passed the “anti-LGBT law” on March 21. Museveni should have signed it within a month. LGBT is the English abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. The variants LGBTQ, LGBTQI or LGBTQIA+ are also often used. Each letter represents one’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Internationally, there was a lot of criticism of the project. The US threatened Uganda with economic repercussions should the law come into force.
In recent years there have been repeated attempts by various social groups to introduce stricter laws against homosexual people in Uganda. These mostly failed due to a veto by the President or were overturned by the Supreme Court.