Uganda’s Controversial ​“Anti-Homosexuality Act” Includes Possibility of Death Sentence

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s (pic­tured) deci­sion to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 on May 29 has drawn wide­spread inter­na­tion­al crit­i­cism. The new law pre­scribes that peo­ple con­vict­ed of ​“aggra­vat­ed homo­sex­u­al­i­ty” may now be pun­ished with a death sen­tence. Although same-sex rela­tion­ships were already ille­gal in the coun­try, the new law, which passed with the sup­port of 341 out of 389 mem­bers of par­lia­ment, includes harsh­er pun­ish­ments for ​“pro­mot­ing” homo­sex­u­al­i­ty and engag­ing in same-sex rela­tions. Uganda last car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in 2005.

Government offi­cials, inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions, and busi­ness lead­ers around the world con­demned the new law. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz tweet­ed that the law was ​“hor­rif­ic & wrong,” not­ing that ​“Any law crim­i­nal­iz­ing homo­sex­u­al­i­ty or impos­ing the death penal­ty for ​‘aggra­vat­ed homo­sex­u­al­i­ty’ is grotesque & an abom­i­na­tion. ALL civ­i­lized nations should join togeth­er in con­demn­ing this human rights abuse.”

President Biden char­ac­ter­ized the new law as ​“a trag­ic vio­la­tion of uni­ver­sal human rights — one that is not wor­thy of the Ugandan peo­ple, and one that jeop­ar­dizes the prospects of crit­i­cal eco­nom­ic growth for the entire coun­try.” He not­ed an increase in ​“reports of vio­lence and dis­crim­i­na­tion tar­get­ing Ugandans who are or are per­ceived to be LGBTQI+” since the intro­duc­tion of the bill. Signed into law days pri­or to Pride Month in the U.S., Biden added that ​“we are con­sid­er­ing addi­tion­al steps, includ­ing the appli­ca­tion of sanc­tions and restric­tion of entry into the United States against any­one involved in seri­ous human rights abus­es or corruption.”

The new law con­tem­plates a prison term of up to 20 years for those who ​“pro­mote” homo­sex­u­al­i­ty, draw­ing con­cern from activists and orga­ni­za­tions that pro­vide treat­ment for AIDS. A joint state­ment by the lead­ers of the Global Fund, UNAIDS and PEPFAR stat­ed that ​“Uganda’s progress on its HIV response is now in grave jeop­ardy. The Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 will obstruct health edu­ca­tion and the out­reach that can help end AIDS as a pub­lic health threat. The stig­ma and dis­crim­i­na­tion asso­ci­at­ed with the pas­sage of the Act has already led to reduced access to pre­ven­tion as well as treatment services…” 

Ugandan human rights lawyer Adrian Jjuuko called the law uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. ​“By crim­i­nal­iz­ing what we call con­sen­su­al same-sex activ­i­ty among adults basi­cal­ly goes against key pro­vi­sions of the con­sti­tu­tion includ­ing vio­lat­ing the rights to equal­i­ty and non-dis­crim­i­na­tion under arti­cle 20 and 21 of the con­sti­tu­tion. It also vio­lates the right to dig­ni­ty which is under arti­cle 24 of the con­sti­tu­tion,” he said.

This is not the first time Uganda has passed a law crim­i­nal­iz­ing same-sex rela­tion­ships. Initially pro­posed in 2009 and passed in 2013, the ​“Kill the Gay Act,” which was then reject­ed by the Constitutional Court in 2014 on pro­ce­dur­al grounds, includ­ed a life sen­tence for aggra­vat­ed homo­sex­u­al­i­ty, though a death sen­tence was orig­i­nal­ly pro­posed. Under the 2023 Act, the charge of ​“aggra­vat­ed homo­sex­u­al­i­ty” is pun­ish­able by death and includes spread­ing HIV through same-sex rela­tions, rape, and statu­to­ry rape, as well as for those deemed ​“ser­i­al offenders.” 

Spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was ​“deeply con­cerned” at the new law and called upon the coun­try to ​“ful­ly respect its inter­na­tion­al human rights oblig­a­tions, in par­tic­u­lar the prin­ci­ple of non-dis­crim­i­na­tion and the respect for per­son­al pri­va­cy, irre­spec­tive of sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion and gen­der iden­ti­ty.” United Nations Human Rights tweet­ed that they were ​“appalled that the dra­con­ian and dis­crim­i­na­to­ry anti-gay bill is now law. It is a recipe for sys­tem­at­ic vio­la­tions of the rights of LGBT peo­ple & the wider pop­u­la­tion.” Earlier in February, the Ugandan gov­ern­ment noti­fied the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Country office that their man­date would not be renewed beyond the current term.

Uganda is not alone in crim­i­nal­iz­ing homo­sex­u­al­i­ty. According to Human Dignity Trust, 11 coun­tries have same-sex rela­tions pun­ish­able by death: Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. At least six of the 11 coun­tries man­date the death penal­ty, while the oth­er five have death as a potential punishment.