Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has sent the bill imposing death penalty for homosexuality back to Parliament for reconsideration.
By Samuel Okiror | The Guardian.
Lusaka, April 22 – Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has refused to sign into law a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill that imposes the death penalty for homosexuality, requesting that it be returned to parliament for reconsideration.
The decision was announced on Thursday after a meeting between the president and ruling party MPs who resolved to return the hardline bill to the national assembly “with proposals for its improvement”.
It was not immediately clear whether the proposed changes would make the proposed law even tougher, although a spokesperson said the president had asked lawmakers to consider “the issue of rehabilitation”.
“I totally agree with the bill, but my original problem is the psychologically disoriented person,” said Museveni, according to a statement.
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Museveni has 30 days within which to either sign the legislation into law, return it to parliament for revisions, or veto it and inform the parliamentary speaker. It may, however, pass into law without the president’s assent if he returns it to parliament twice.
The bill in its current form imposes capital and life-imprisonment sentences for gay sex, up to 14 years for “attempted” homosexuality, and 20 years in jail for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”.
An earlier version of the bill prompted widespread international criticism and was later nullified by Uganda’s constitutional court on procedural grounds. In Uganda, a largely conservative Christian east African country, homosexual sex is already punishable by life imprisonment.
The bill, which the UN human rights head, Volker Türk, last month described as “shocking and discriminatory”, was passed almost unanimously by 389 MPs on 21 March.
The decision to return the bill to Parliament prompted mixed reactions, with human rights campaigners calling for it to be shelved entirely.
“This is the reprieve the LGBTIQ community needed,” Clare Byarugaba, an LGBTQ+ advocate in Kampala, said in a tweet.
“If you have never had an abhorrent state-sanctioned hate bill that is a matter of life and death hanging over your head every waking morning, hold your freedom dear. The struggle continues,” she wrote.
Adrian Jjuuko, of the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum in Kampala, said Museveni’s decision offered another chance to defeat the bill, but warned that the president’s ambiguous comments were still troubling.
“He seems to only want to exclude from punishment persons who come out as gay and seek rehabilitation. This would have the impact of turning some LGBTI persons against others as the one who reports first and plays victim in a consensual relationship would get away scot-free. Secondly, the president seems to have no problem with the vague language around promotion which essentially make any discussions around LGBTIQ to be promotion of homosexuality,” Jjuuko said.
Supporters of the bill also welcomed the move. “It’s a good step forward to include in the legislation an amnesty for those giving up sodomy voluntarily,” said pastor Martin Ssempa, one of the main backers of the bill. “And to include in the legislation a road map of rehabilitation including rehabilitation centres. Both amendments are human and legitimate,” he said.
Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of Amnesty International, said the “deeply repressive” bill should be dropped. “Instead of persecuting LGBTI people, the Ugandan authorities should protect their rights by aligning their laws with international human rights law and standards,” she said. “Criminalising consensual same-sex conduct blatantly violates numerous human rights, including the rights to dignity, equality before the law, equal protection by the law, and non-discrimination.”
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