KAMPALA, Uganda
The United Nations and the United States led calls Wednesday for Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni to reject what has been labelled an "appalling" anti-gay bill.
Ugandan lawmakers approved the
Anti-Homosexuality Act late on Tuesday after a chaotic near seven-hour session,
ordering harsh penalties for anyone who engages in same-sex activity.
Homosexuality was already
illegal in the conservative East African nation and it was not immediately
clear what new penalties had been agreed, with reports some offenders could
face life in prison or even the death penalty.
UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights Volker Turk urged Museveni not to promulgate the bill into law.
"The passing of this
discriminatory bill -– probably among the worst of its kind in the world –- is
a deeply troubling development," he said in a statement.
"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. 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
appealed to Museveni to reject the "appalling" legislation,
describing it as a "grave assault" on LGBTQ people.
"This ambiguous, vaguely
worded law even criminalises those who 'promote' homosexuality," said
Amnesty's east and southern Africa director, Tigere Chagutah.
Lawmakers amended significant
portions of the original draft legislation with all but one speaking in favour
of the bill.
MP Fox Odoi-Oywelowo, a member
of Museveni's National Resistance Movement party who spoke against the bill,
told AFP that offenders would face life imprisonment or even the death penalty
for "aggravated" offences.
Amnesty said Museveni
"must urgently veto this appalling legislation", saying it would
"institutionalise discrimination, hatred, and prejudice" against the
LGBTQ community.
The discussion about the bill
in parliament has been laced with homophobic language and Museveni himself last
week referred to gay people as "deviants".
Nevertheless, the 78-year-old
veteran leader has consistently signalled he does not view the issue as a
priority, and would prefer to maintain good relations with Western donors and
investors.
US Secretary of State Antony
Blinken joined calls for the government to reconsider the legislation, saying
on Twitter it would "undermine fundamental human rights of all Ugandans
and could reverse gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS".
Britain's Africa minister
Andrew Mitchell said he was "deeply disappointed" with the passage of
the bill while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's special envoy on LGBTQ rights,
Nicholas Herbert, warned it risked increasing "discrimination and
persecution of people across Uganda".
"While many countries,
including a number on the African continent, are moving towards
decriminalisation this is a deeply troubling step in the opposite
direction," Herbert said on Twitter.
Gay sex is allowed or has been
decriminalised in Angola, Botswana, Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Rwanda, and the
Seychelles.
Uganda is notorious for its
intolerance of homosexuality, and the passage of the bill was welcomed by some.
"We are very happy as
citizens of Uganda. Culturally we do not... accept homosexuality, lesbianism,
LGBTQ. We cannot," said one local resident, 54-year-old Abdu Mukasa.
"We were created by God.
God created man and woman. And we cannot accept one sex to go on the same
sex."
Homosexuality was criminalised
in Uganda under colonial-era laws but since independence from Britain in 1962
there has never been a conviction for consensual same-sex activity.
In 2014, Ugandan lawmakers
passed a bill that called for life in prison for people caught having gay sex.
A court later struck down the
law on a technicality, but it had already sparked international condemnation,
with some Western nations freezing or redirecting millions of dollars of
government aid in response.
Last week, police said they
had arrested six men for "practising homosexuality" in the southern
lakeside town of Jinja.
Another six men were arrested
on the same charge on Sunday, according to police. - AFP
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