Uganda's constitutional court on Wednesday refused to annul or suspend an anti-LGBTQ law that includes the death penalty for certain same-sex acts, but voided some provisions it said are inconsistent with certain fundamental human rights.
The legislation, adopted in May last year, is among the world's harshest anti-gay laws and has drawn condemnation from rights campaigners and sanctions from Western nations.
Activists say the law has unleashed a torrent of abuse against LGBTQ people, including torture, rape, arrest and eviction.
"We decline to nullify the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 in its entirety, neither will we grant a permanent injunction against its enforcement," said lead judge Richard Buteera, reading the judgment on behalf of his four colleagues.
However, the court struck down certain sections it said were "inconsistent with right to health, privacy and freedom of religion".
The portions of the act that were voided criminalised the letting of premises for use for homosexual acts and failure to report homosexual acts.
Under the Anti-Homosexuality Act, citizens had an obligation to report anyone they suspected of engaging in homosexuality. This requirement violated individual rights, the court found.
The government will now have to remove these sections from the law, Edward Ssemambo, a human rights lawyer representing the petitioners, told Reuters.
@Int3grityAuroraDemocrat1mo1MO
To our friends in the western world: please keep out of this debate. We appreciate your solidarity but we don’t need your support. Your involvement with sanctions and travel bans distorts the whole issue, making it like you want to impose your values on Uganda.
This undermines local agency for we come across as your fifth columnists. Your threats of sanctions and travel and visa bans also undermine the legitimacy of decisions by judges as the public may think (if they annul the law) it’s because you had your guns on their heads!
@Ind3pendentFrankieGreen1mo1MO
Since when are people's rights a western thing only?
The West knows how weak societies can be disadvantaged by people in power. They have fought for these same rights for ages and wish well for those helpless societies. You're dismissive of them because of your politics.
@JusticeThrushRepublican1mo1MO
Wait:-
—You are using their ‘imposed’ legal system
—Quoting their jurisprudence
—Relying on their legal instruments
—Hoping to receive their funding for research
But bold enough to say:-
—You ‘don't need’ their support!
—They can't ‘impose’ their values on Uganda?
Unfortunately, many of us do want to impose our values on Uganda, yet we scream and shout when we are challenged on the sins of our fathers. Uganda is sovereign: let Ugandans decide if they want to regulate how adults express their sexuality.
@9KY6LGG1mo1MO
As unbelievers, the Far-Left must ultimately accept this Uganda law. Because they believe that there is no God, they believe all rights come from government and political law, and because Uganda has ruled against homosexual sodomy, you can't claim Ugandans have a right to that sin without appealing to a Higher Authority, viz. God, who decries that unnatural practice!
@9CJ6CB61mo1MO
By that very logic, all laws must be made in accordance with enforcing no sins being committed. Thereby, you destroy the very purpose OF Christianity: you must choose to follow Christ. Even if you claim to be right, that doesn’t mean your laws get to dictate people’s choices, so religious basis is not even remotely a Christian thing if applied to government. Allowing gay people to exist has a net-positive outcome for society itself, and often signifies being a more developed nation. God can decry it, but the purpose of Jesus’ sacrifice was to choose to repent and stop sinning, not to be forced into that by the law itself. That’s why a secular thought process must be applied to this, because it disgraced Christianity to enforce it’s beliefs by law.
@9KY6LGG1mo1MO
That's false and a slippery slope fallacy and a false equivalence – all rolled into one distasteful emotional unload. If you had actually taken ten seconds out of your day to process what I actually said (though in your case, it would probably take longer) you would not have posted the above comment. What I actually SAID, instead of what you might wish I had said, was that the Left has no basis to claim homosexual sodomy in Uganda as a RIGHT because the government has banned it and to them government is the highest authority. I never once said that all sins must be banned by the… Read more
@Mere1957Republican1mo1MO
Stop the pretence! Let the whites stay with their LGBT issues in their countries as we stay with our cultures in Africa. We are against entrenching LGBT in Africa. Europe,US etc shd carry their own cross.
You're a Ugandan who's so much aware that homosexuality is not in our culture,there are behaviors we can pick from others but not everything.
Homosexuality is destructive to our family structure and population in the long run bcoz it spreads.
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