KAMPALA, Uganda
Lawyers for the Ugandan
government have advised President Yoweri Museveni not to sign a draconian
anti-gay bill passed by parliament last month as he met with ruling party
lawmakers on Thursday to discuss the controversial legislation.Uganda President Yoweri Museveni
The Anti-Homosexuality Bill
2023, which calls for harsh penalties against anyone who engages in same-sex
activity, has been roundly condemned by the international community and rights
campaigners.
Museveni has faced widespread
calls to reject what has been criticized as among the world's harshest anti-gay
legislation.
Under the bill, anyone who
engages in same-sex activity could face life imprisonment while repeat
offenders could be sentenced to death, according to activists.
Lawyers for the government
have advised the president to send the bill back to parliament, according to a
letter sent by the deputy attorney general to the speaker of parliament on
Thursday and seen by AFP.
The move came as the European
Parliament voted to condemn the bill and urged EU states to find a way to
pressure Museveni into not implementing it, warning relations with Kampala were
at stake.
MEPs urged the European
Commission to "use all necessary diplomatic, legal and financial means to
convince the president to not sign the law."
In the letter to speaker Anita
Among, deputy attorney general Kaafuzi Jackson Kargaba said that the
government's legal team has recommended that the bill "be returned to
Parliament for reconsideration".
The government wants to
"ensure that once the Bill is assented to, it stands the test of time
without being struck down by Court as being unconstitutional", Karaba
said.
The inclusion of the death
penalty in particular would leave the bill open to legal challenge in a country
that has effectively ended the use of capital punishment, he said.
The bill was passed in a
chaotic late-night parliamentary session and many of its hastily drafted
clauses are open to interpretation, with Kargaba warning that some of its
provisions are "too broad or vague".
Such provisions "need to
be revisited before the Bill is assented to by His Excellency the President to
avoid the Bill being challenged in Court on grounds of unconstitutionality upon
coming into force."
Museveni summoned lawmakers
from the ruling National Resistance Movement on Thursday to discuss the bill,
with the party's chief whip Denis Hamson Obua confirming the meeting to AFP
before it got under way.
Sources close to Museveni's
office earlier told AFP that they expect the president to reject the current draft
of the bill and return it to parliament for reconsideration.
Last month, the White House
warned Uganda of possible economic repercussions if the legislation takes
effect.
The UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights Volker Turk also 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 after the March parliamentary
vote.
But many of Uganda's
neighbours are also cracking down on gay rights, with politicians in Kenya and
Tanzania for example warning against any efforts to raise awareness of LGBTQ
issues.
Homosexuality was criminalized
in Uganda under colonial-era laws but since independence from Britain in 1962
there has never been a conviction for consensual same-sex activity.
No comments:
Post a Comment