UGANDA’S CONSTITUTIONAL COURT REJECTS ANTI-GAY LAW PETITION

A view of the panel of five judges led by the country’s deputy chief justice, Richard Buteera. FILE PHOTO

Wed 03 April 2024:

A petition to repeal anti-gay law was denied by Uganda’s Constitutional Court. on Wednesday.

The court ruled on Wednesday that certain sections of the law violated the right to health and were “inconsistent with the right to health, privacy, and freedom of religion,” but did not block or suspend the law.

“We decline to nullify the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 in its entirety, neither will we grant a permanent injunction against its enforcement,” Justice Richard Buteera, Uganda’s deputy chief justice and head of the court, said in the landmark ruling.

The petition was brought by two law professors from Makerere University in Kampala, legislators from the ruling party and human rights activists.

They said the law violates fundamental rights guaranteed by Uganda’s Constitution, including freedom from discrimination and the right to privacy.

According to Ugandan television station NTV, the five-member court reached a unanimous decision to reject the petition against the law, which enjoys broad popular support in the country.

The legislation was adopted in May, triggering outrage among the LGBTQ community, rights campaigners, the United Nations and Western nations.

The Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 imposes penalties of up to life in prison for consensual same-sex relations and contains provisions that make “aggravated homosexuality” an offence punishable by death.

President Yoweri Museveni’s government has struck a defiant tone with officials accusing the West of trying to pressure Africa into accepting homosexuality.

Uganda, a conservative and predominantly Christian country in East Africa, is well known for its intolerance of homosexuality.

It has resisted pressure from rights organisations, the UN and foreign governments to repeal the law.

In August, the World Bank announced that it was suspending new loans to Uganda over the law because it “fundamentally contradicts” the values espoused by the international institution.

In December, Ugandan Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Henry Okello Oryem accused the West of seeking “to coerce us into accepting same-sex relationships using aid and loans”.

In 2014, international donors had slashed aid to Uganda after Museveni approved a bill that sought to impose life sentences for homosexual relations, which was later overturned.

East African nation of Uganda, which is largely Christian and conservative, is widely known for its opposition of homosexuality.

It has rejected calls to repeal the law from human rights organizations, the UN, and other nations.

The World Bank declared in August that the law “fundamentally contradicts” the principles the international organization upholds, and as a result, it would no longer be making new loans to Uganda.

Henry Okello Oryem, the minister of state for foreign affairs of Uganda, charged in December that the West was attempting “to coerce us into accepting same-sex relationships using aid and loans.”

International aid to Uganda was drastically reduced in 2014 when Museveni signed a bill that attempted to imprison homosexuals for life but was eventually revoked.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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