Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act

Uganda’s recently implemented anti-homosexuality act1 builds on colonial era law to increase prison sentences for homosexual behaviour. It also introduces the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” targeting serial offenders, people with terminal illnesses, people older than 75, and perpetrators of rape. The act provides for children under 18 to be imprisoned for up to three years. New offences include the “promotion of homosexuality” and failure to report homosexual acts.Some African countries have reversed colonial laws that criminalise homosexuality, including Angola (2021),2 Gabon (2020), Botswana (2019), Seychelles (2016), Mozambique (2014), Lesotho (2012), and South Africa (2006).3 But decades of campaigning in the continent by ultraconservative non-profit organisations registered in the US4 have prompted others, including Uganda, Kenya, and Ghana, to propose harsher laws.Worldwide, 64 countries criminalise consensual same-sex sexual acts, most of them in Africa and the Middle East.3 This state sanctioned homophobia infringes on the human rights of LGBTQ+ people,…
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