‘It’s Just Love’: UN Experts Raise Concerns Over Uganda’s Harsh Anti-LGBT Legislation

UN experts today described making homosexuality punishable by death as a serious violation of human rights, urging the president of Uganda to not sign into law a controversial legislation – recently passed by parliament – that targets people identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, and even those who defend their human rights.

Repeatedly described as one of the harshest anti-LGBT laws in the world, the legislation has drawn widespread international condemnation. The experts have raised serious concerns over the bill worsening and legitimising continued stigmatisation and harassment against the sexual minority population and impacting all spheres of their lives.

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The experts also highlighted the dozens of mental health-associated risks, adding “culture can never be a justification for such flagrant violations of human rights.” They underscored the escalating risks to the human rights of gender-diverse persons in Uganda over the past decade and recalled the obligation of all stakeholders to promote social inclusion.

According to the experts, the recently proposed Ugandan law comes after years of State-instigated and perpetuated discrimination and violence based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The country had previously passed a similar controversial law but the courts had struck it down, saying parliament had passed the legislation without the necessary quorum.

This time, however, things might take a different course as President Yoweri Museveni has spoken in favour of the legislation.

While US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has raised concerns over the bill undermining the “human rights of all Ugandans”, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby hasn’t ruled out possible economic “repercussions” if the legislation gets signed into law.