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Uganda Parliament passes bill that would punish gay sex with life imprisonment – JURIST

Uganda’s Parliament Tuesday unanimously passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023, a bill that would make the “promotion” of homosexuality punishable by 20 years’ imprisonment and homosexual sex acts punishable by life imprisonment. It also allows the death penalty for engaging in “aggravated acts of homosexuality,” which is when one of the persons has HIV or a disability. The bill must receive assent from Uganda’s President before it can become law.Several provisions in the bill, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW), violate the freedom of expression, association, and liberty guaranteed by international law and the Ugandan Constitution. These include provisions declaring all homosexual intercourse as nonconsensual, prohibiting people from identifying as a gender other than male or female, criminalising same-sex marriage, and punishing any person that abets any acts of homosexuality. HRW also claimed that out of the 30 African countries that have banned same-sex relations, Uganda is the first to outlaw merely even identifying as part of the LGBTQ community.The bill was preceded by called by the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014, which was struck down by Uganda’s Constitutional Court. While introducing the new bill, Ugandan MP Asuman Basalirwa said “This House had an opportunity to correct the anomaly [in 2014], but it was lost. We now have another opportunity to follow all the procedures to have a law in place.”The Attorney General of Uganda, Kiryowa Kiwanuka, has described this bill as redundant, claiming that most of these proposed offences are already criminalized in various existing acts. Amnesty International has also called the legislation “ambiguous, vaguely worded” and “deeply regressive”.The legislation currently awaits the signature of President Yoweri Museveni. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has urged President Museveni not to give assent to the bill.