A report released by the Ugandan LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Convening for Equality (CFE) has documented a significant increase in human rights violations against LGBTQ+ individuals following the passage of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) 2023. The Act, which introduces severe penalties for same-sex intercourse, including life imprisonment and the death penalty for “aggravated” offenses, has precipitated a wave of abuse.
The document, which comprehensively reviews over a thousand cases, asserts that incidents of arrests, torture, and forced evictions have surged in the aftermath of the Act’s enactment. The number of reported violations increased dramatically from 306 cases between January and August 2023 to 1253 in the subsequent period from September 2023 to April 2024. The spectrum of abuses includes “correctional” rapes, reproductive coercion, denial of housing rights, and mob attacks. The primary victims are reported to be gay men, followed by transgender women and lesbians. The Uganda Police, landlords, local councils (LCs), and family members have been identified as the principal perpetrators of these violations.
Despite the constitutional guarantee of equality before the law as provided by Article 21 of Uganda’s Constitution, the CFE’s report highlights a glaring failure of the state to protect the human rights of LGBTQ+ persons. Furthermore, while the Constitutional Court of Uganda nullified specific sections of the AHA, such as the criminalization of the usage of premises for homosexual acts (Section 9) and the mandatory reporting of suspected homosexuality cases (Section 14), the report indicates that these judicial measures have had minimal impact on the ground, with numerous instances of the public taking the law into their own hands and violating individuals’ right to privacy.
Historically, Uganda’s legislative approach to homosexual relations has been fraught with punitive measures. After the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014 was struck down, the government introduced the Sexual Offenses Bill of 2021, which criminalized anal sex between people of any gender and any “sexual act between persons of the same gender.” The current AHA, signed into law in May 2023, has faced substantial international criticism, with organizations such as the EU condemning it on grounds of human rights and equality.
The findings of the CFE’s report present a grim picture of the social and legal challenges faced by Uganda’s LGBTQ+ community, shedding light on a critical humanitarian issue that demands urgent attention both domestically and internationally. For additional details, the full report is available on the JURIST website.