Court stands by anti-gay law
Homosexuality and its promotion remains a criminal offence in Uganda, the Supreme Court says, but opens health centres to allow treatment of gay persons
KAMPALA:
The Constitutional Court has rejected a strong bid to overturn the anti-gay law in its entirety, but struck down controversial clauses in a potentially win-win landmark judgement.
The panel of five justices in the Wednesday verdict in the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) nullified provisions that directly impede health service and freed property owners from criminal responsibility.
However, they confirmed that advocacy, activism, and organising LGBTI campaigns are illegal.
The controversial law, in its Section 9, had pinned property owners on the wall if they rented out their premises such houses and hotels to persons who then engaged in the activities that have been criminalised under the AHA.
In 2014, the same court nullified a similar anti-gay law but after Parliament re-enacted it, petitioners including MP Fox Odoi, journalist Andrew Mwenda and human activists were hoping for more of the same verdict.
The passing of the legislation in May last year triggered Western sanctions, including from the World Bank and US.
The World Bank halted new lending to the country while the U.S. announced visa and travel cautions.
The particular clause that imposed the death penalty on aggravated homosexuality had left human rights activists and the West in a tetchy knot.
But in June last year, President Museveni, who assented to the AHA on May 26, 2023, told the West that the new law had been misinterpreted.
He clarified that the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 forbids recruitment by homosexuals of non-gay people into the practice of homosexuality, exhibitionism and promotion of sexual orientation, and performing homosexual sex on another person.
