Activists in Uganda have done a stunning job. You can look at your opponents and say “Today, we defeated you.” There will be another fight tomorrow but recognizing the power that you have built is important for everyone. You have really shown the world what is possible. You have worked with allies in sectors of human rights, legal services, refugee rights, women’s rights, faith organizations, sex work, lesbian, gay, intersex, trans,. There has also been impressive work between the Ugandan community and embassies in Uganda on a level that has been challenging in the past and in other parts of the world. Activists have had to immerse themselves in the workings of the parliamentary process and become familiar with legislative procedure. Activists have become intimately familiar with the inner working of media houses, the process of getting stories accepted or rejected. Groups have delved into the relationships between courts, the media, the public and the legislature.
Ugandan activists are now better known to those in other countries at much greater level than before. Activists have had to make tough decisions about how strong to push or how much to hang back, whether to argue equality or government transparency or human rights or traditionalism or faith. Folks have had to decide who is the best messenger in one moment or another, be it a law professor, someone who has been victimized, a gay person, a straight person, a clergy person or someone else. Activists have acquired new skills, writen web pages, press releases, budgets, appeals for assistance, all sorts of things that will continue to serve the community. Activists have worked at the level of the Ugandan government, the UN, with Special Rapporteurs, at the Commonwealth, at the African Commission and with allied governments. It has really been a tremendous achievement.
This is really a tremendous achievement. Bahati, anti-gay evangelicals and supporters had the goal of passing this bill. They did not achieve it. Of course they will come back again but clearly their goal was passage now and they lost and they know it. This is a moment when the Ugandan community can face them and say “Today, we defeated you.” Social change will also require changing hearts and minds, but part of that is simply showing that LGBTI people and their allies have the willingness and ability to successfully enter into the battle. This was a battle fought over 2 years, since the time the first version of the bill left Bahati’s office. It has required persistence, the ability to survive arrest and murder, and a view past the short term.
I want to make a case for a declaration of victory. It will show our opponents that victory is not always theirs. It will also show others in the LGBTI community that despair is not the only option. This is a defensive victory, and temporary, but unless one knows that ultimately victory is possible then you might as well fold up and go home. It is victories like the current defeat of the Bahati Bill that lets us know that ultimate victory is possible. A declaration is victory is also a claiming of power and of rights and a statement that the community is willing to be persistent.
Congratulations to all.
Andrew Park
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
US legislators push for aid cut to Uganda over gays bill
A United States legislator has introduced a piece of legislation to an influential committee of the American Congress calling for an aid cut to Uganda and other countries deemed to be persecuting people “on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or religious belief.”
Congressman Barney Frank, who introduced the amendment in the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday the amendment received unanimous backing from the legislators “although most votes in the committee have broken along party lines.”
Highlighting Uganda as one of the countries where the persecution of gays is high, Mr Frank said the committee now urges the Treasury to advocate that governments receiving assistance from the multilateral development institutions do not engage in gross violations of human rights.
“What we have seen in recent years is a pattern of gross violation of human rights in some countries–extreme physical persecution and even execution,” said Congressman Frank.
“In Uganda for example, which was the major beneficiary of our Heavily Indebted Poor Countries debt initiative, there has been physical persecution of people who are sexual minorities,” he added.
Anti-homesexuality Bill
Mr Frank said the US has a fairly influential voice in the development area and should not be supportive of providing multilateral bank development funds to countries which engage in the physical persecution of people because of their religious beliefs, sexual orientation or gender identity,” he added.
The statement says Congressman Frank’s amendment will now be included in the language of House Financial Services Committee Bill, which outlines budget priorities for issues under its jurisdiction.
The US, which is one of the leading donors to Uganda, has been very vocal about what its officials describe as persecution of ordinary Ugandans because of their sexual orientation since legislator David Bahati tabled an anti-homosexuality Bill before Parliament in October 2009.
This is the first time a US official is formally proposing an aid cut premised on the alleged persecution of gays.
The aid cut would heavily affect Uganda, which receives substantial amounts in public and project support, though the country’s donor funding to the budget has reduced from more than 70 per cent in the early 1990s to less than 30 per cent in the current budget.
Congressman Barney Frank, who introduced the amendment in the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement on Tuesday the amendment received unanimous backing from the legislators “although most votes in the committee have broken along party lines.”
Highlighting Uganda as one of the countries where the persecution of gays is high, Mr Frank said the committee now urges the Treasury to advocate that governments receiving assistance from the multilateral development institutions do not engage in gross violations of human rights.
“What we have seen in recent years is a pattern of gross violation of human rights in some countries–extreme physical persecution and even execution,” said Congressman Frank.
“In Uganda for example, which was the major beneficiary of our Heavily Indebted Poor Countries debt initiative, there has been physical persecution of people who are sexual minorities,” he added.
Anti-homesexuality Bill
Mr Frank said the US has a fairly influential voice in the development area and should not be supportive of providing multilateral bank development funds to countries which engage in the physical persecution of people because of their religious beliefs, sexual orientation or gender identity,” he added.
The statement says Congressman Frank’s amendment will now be included in the language of House Financial Services Committee Bill, which outlines budget priorities for issues under its jurisdiction.
The US, which is one of the leading donors to Uganda, has been very vocal about what its officials describe as persecution of ordinary Ugandans because of their sexual orientation since legislator David Bahati tabled an anti-homosexuality Bill before Parliament in October 2009.
This is the first time a US official is formally proposing an aid cut premised on the alleged persecution of gays.
The aid cut would heavily affect Uganda, which receives substantial amounts in public and project support, though the country’s donor funding to the budget has reduced from more than 70 per cent in the early 1990s to less than 30 per cent in the current budget.
Buturo takes parting shot at homosexuals : Push for its Passing
Compelled by a decision of the Constitutional Court and having received instructions from the Office of the Prime Minister, Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo yesterday stepped down from office, a post he has held since June 2006 when he replaced Miria Matembe.
But in the five years Dr Buturo has held the docket, he has been labelled “controversial” by a cross section of the public, often due to his scratchy fight over ethics in the country, but at times, because of the controversies in which his ministry, or Buturo the person, was allegedly caught in.
Yet even as he left office, Dr Buturo took a parting shot at the gays and lesbian community in Uganda, urging Ugandans to support government to ensure the anti-homsexuality Bill is passed.
“I urge you to put pressure on Parliament to debate, amend the anti- homosexual Bill and pass a law that will serve the interest of Ugandans and not our friends,” Dr Buturo said.
‘Advise from above’
Others say Dr Buturo took this decision after being advised by ‘higher authorities’ to do so to avoid a ‘public humiliation’ from the ‘appointing authority’. More resignations are expected, they add.
“He resigned from what?” a very senior government official asked this newspaper last evening, adding that Dr Buturo knew his fate well in advance. He, however, refused to further comment about him as a former colleague. “I do not want to be among the commentators on Buturo,” he added.
A few months after his appointment as Ethics minister, Parliament in October 2006 ordered Dr Buturo to pay back Shs20 million he received from Mega FM, a local radio station in Gulu. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told he had received the money while he was Information Minister. Dr Buturo, who put up a spirited defence against the allegations, eventually bowed to public pressure and paid the money in installments.
The outgoing MP for Bufumbira County East in Kisoro District, Dr Buturo recently lost his bid to return to Parliament as an independent candidate. He had lost the party ticket for his constituency in the NRM primaries.
Dr Buturo last year attributed his NRM primaries loss to ‘robbery from within’ his party, necessitating him to stand as an independent although others say he never delivered sufficiently to his electorate during his tenure. “My decision to run as an independent is not because I was disgruntled. I simply wanted to make a statement that immorality/wickedness should never be allowed to pay. I realised that if I had accepted the fraud, it would be allowing wickedness as a means to promotion and acquisition of whatever one may want in life in our nation,” Dr Buturo said in an interview with another daily newspaper, adding that his party president had shown what he called a “positive attitude to his candidature at the time”.
“His resignation means nothing,” former Ethics minister Miria Matembe told Daily Monitor. “He should have resigned immediately after being robbed by his corrupt colleagues in the NRM primaries,” she added.
Ms Matembe said although she thinks Dr Buturo may have genuinely wanted to fight corruption, he never clearly declared his stand on the vice.
“The Ethics ministry is no longer relevant to the NRM government,” Ms Matembe said. “While I was Ethics minister I did not hesitate to come out openly to condemn corrupt people and institutions. Yet I never clearly heard his stand on corruption.”
She added: “He never openly condemned his fellow ministers who were implicated in corruption scandals. He played it safe, taking political responsibility for collective corruption that thrives in that government. Corruption is the engine that drives the NRM. You only get persecuted when you fall out with government. Buturo facilitated it.”
Notwithstanding his alleged failure to deal with corruption within government, Dr Buturo will be remembered for his fire-fighting stance against what he chose to call a “perverted Ugandan society and an irresponsible media”. He often got in head-on battles with the Red Pepper, a tabloid, which to him published photographs of pornographic nature.
Dr Buturo had no kind words for the tabloid although, as fate would have it, his office shared the same floor and is directly opposite the tabloid’s sales and marketing office on Social Security House in Kampala.
The man who once wrote: “Uganda’s media and the entertainment industry should treat immorality as a subject that deserves our total rejection”, even advocated the publication of names and pictures of people who engage in prostitution as a way of deterring others from engaging in the vice. Fresh in the minds of many, however, is his contribution to the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
But in the five years Dr Buturo has held the docket, he has been labelled “controversial” by a cross section of the public, often due to his scratchy fight over ethics in the country, but at times, because of the controversies in which his ministry, or Buturo the person, was allegedly caught in.
Yet even as he left office, Dr Buturo took a parting shot at the gays and lesbian community in Uganda, urging Ugandans to support government to ensure the anti-homsexuality Bill is passed.
“I urge you to put pressure on Parliament to debate, amend the anti- homosexual Bill and pass a law that will serve the interest of Ugandans and not our friends,” Dr Buturo said.
‘Advise from above’
Others say Dr Buturo took this decision after being advised by ‘higher authorities’ to do so to avoid a ‘public humiliation’ from the ‘appointing authority’. More resignations are expected, they add.
“He resigned from what?” a very senior government official asked this newspaper last evening, adding that Dr Buturo knew his fate well in advance. He, however, refused to further comment about him as a former colleague. “I do not want to be among the commentators on Buturo,” he added.
A few months after his appointment as Ethics minister, Parliament in October 2006 ordered Dr Buturo to pay back Shs20 million he received from Mega FM, a local radio station in Gulu. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told he had received the money while he was Information Minister. Dr Buturo, who put up a spirited defence against the allegations, eventually bowed to public pressure and paid the money in installments.
The outgoing MP for Bufumbira County East in Kisoro District, Dr Buturo recently lost his bid to return to Parliament as an independent candidate. He had lost the party ticket for his constituency in the NRM primaries.
Dr Buturo last year attributed his NRM primaries loss to ‘robbery from within’ his party, necessitating him to stand as an independent although others say he never delivered sufficiently to his electorate during his tenure. “My decision to run as an independent is not because I was disgruntled. I simply wanted to make a statement that immorality/wickedness should never be allowed to pay. I realised that if I had accepted the fraud, it would be allowing wickedness as a means to promotion and acquisition of whatever one may want in life in our nation,” Dr Buturo said in an interview with another daily newspaper, adding that his party president had shown what he called a “positive attitude to his candidature at the time”.
“His resignation means nothing,” former Ethics minister Miria Matembe told Daily Monitor. “He should have resigned immediately after being robbed by his corrupt colleagues in the NRM primaries,” she added.
Ms Matembe said although she thinks Dr Buturo may have genuinely wanted to fight corruption, he never clearly declared his stand on the vice.
“The Ethics ministry is no longer relevant to the NRM government,” Ms Matembe said. “While I was Ethics minister I did not hesitate to come out openly to condemn corrupt people and institutions. Yet I never clearly heard his stand on corruption.”
She added: “He never openly condemned his fellow ministers who were implicated in corruption scandals. He played it safe, taking political responsibility for collective corruption that thrives in that government. Corruption is the engine that drives the NRM. You only get persecuted when you fall out with government. Buturo facilitated it.”
Notwithstanding his alleged failure to deal with corruption within government, Dr Buturo will be remembered for his fire-fighting stance against what he chose to call a “perverted Ugandan society and an irresponsible media”. He often got in head-on battles with the Red Pepper, a tabloid, which to him published photographs of pornographic nature.
Dr Buturo had no kind words for the tabloid although, as fate would have it, his office shared the same floor and is directly opposite the tabloid’s sales and marketing office on Social Security House in Kampala.
The man who once wrote: “Uganda’s media and the entertainment industry should treat immorality as a subject that deserves our total rejection”, even advocated the publication of names and pictures of people who engage in prostitution as a way of deterring others from engaging in the vice. Fresh in the minds of many, however, is his contribution to the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Dr Buturo told the international community that Uganda would never give equal rights to gays and lesbians nor has plans to legalise homosexuality. The Bill brought Uganda on the spotlight since some of its provisions demanded the death penalty.
But in the five years Dr Buturo has held the docket, he has been labelled “controversial” by a cross section of the public, often due to his scratchy fight over ethics in the country, but at times, because of the controversies in which his ministry, or Buturo the person, was allegedly caught in.
Yet even as he left office, Dr Buturo took a parting shot at the gays and lesbian community in Uganda, urging Ugandans to support government to ensure the anti-homsexuality Bill is passed.
“I urge you to put pressure on Parliament to debate, amend the anti- homosexual Bill and pass a law that will serve the interest of Ugandans and not our friends,” Dr Buturo said.
‘Advise from above’
Others say Dr Buturo took this decision after being advised by ‘higher authorities’ to do so to avoid a ‘public humiliation’ from the ‘appointing authority’. More resignations are expected, they add.
“He resigned from what?” a very senior government official asked this newspaper last evening, adding that Dr Buturo knew his fate well in advance. He, however, refused to further comment about him as a former colleague. “I do not want to be among the commentators on Buturo,” he added.
A few months after his appointment as Ethics minister, Parliament in October 2006 ordered Dr Buturo to pay back Shs20 million he received from Mega FM, a local radio station in Gulu. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told he had received the money while he was Information Minister. Dr Buturo, who put up a spirited defence against the allegations, eventually bowed to public pressure and paid the money in installments.
The outgoing MP for Bufumbira County East in Kisoro District, Dr Buturo recently lost his bid to return to Parliament as an independent candidate. He had lost the party ticket for his constituency in the NRM primaries.
Dr Buturo last year attributed his NRM primaries loss to ‘robbery from within’ his party, necessitating him to stand as an independent although others say he never delivered sufficiently to his electorate during his tenure. “My decision to run as an independent is not because I was disgruntled. I simply wanted to make a statement that immorality/wickedness should never be allowed to pay. I realised that if I had accepted the fraud, it would be allowing wickedness as a means to promotion and acquisition of whatever one may want in life in our nation,” Dr Buturo said in an interview with another daily newspaper, adding that his party president had shown what he called a “positive attitude to his candidature at the time”.
“His resignation means nothing,” former Ethics minister Miria Matembe told Daily Monitor. “He should have resigned immediately after being robbed by his corrupt colleagues in the NRM primaries,” she added.
Ms Matembe said although she thinks Dr Buturo may have genuinely wanted to fight corruption, he never clearly declared his stand on the vice.
“The Ethics ministry is no longer relevant to the NRM government,” Ms Matembe said. “While I was Ethics minister I did not hesitate to come out openly to condemn corrupt people and institutions. Yet I never clearly heard his stand on corruption.”
She added: “He never openly condemned his fellow ministers who were implicated in corruption scandals. He played it safe, taking political responsibility for collective corruption that thrives in that government. Corruption is the engine that drives the NRM. You only get persecuted when you fall out with government. Buturo facilitated it.”
Notwithstanding his alleged failure to deal with corruption within government, Dr Buturo will be remembered for his fire-fighting stance against what he chose to call a “perverted Ugandan society and an irresponsible media”. He often got in head-on battles with the Red Pepper, a tabloid, which to him published photographs of pornographic nature.
Dr Buturo had no kind words for the tabloid although, as fate would have it, his office shared the same floor and is directly opposite the tabloid’s sales and marketing office on Social Security House in Kampala.
The man who once wrote: “Uganda’s media and the entertainment industry should treat immorality as a subject that deserves our total rejection”, even advocated the publication of names and pictures of people who engage in prostitution as a way of deterring others from engaging in the vice. Fresh in the minds of many, however, is his contribution to the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
But in the five years Dr Buturo has held the docket, he has been labelled “controversial” by a cross section of the public, often due to his scratchy fight over ethics in the country, but at times, because of the controversies in which his ministry, or Buturo the person, was allegedly caught in.
Yet even as he left office, Dr Buturo took a parting shot at the gays and lesbian community in Uganda, urging Ugandans to support government to ensure the anti-homsexuality Bill is passed.
“I urge you to put pressure on Parliament to debate, amend the anti- homosexual Bill and pass a law that will serve the interest of Ugandans and not our friends,” Dr Buturo said.
‘Advise from above’
Others say Dr Buturo took this decision after being advised by ‘higher authorities’ to do so to avoid a ‘public humiliation’ from the ‘appointing authority’. More resignations are expected, they add.
“He resigned from what?” a very senior government official asked this newspaper last evening, adding that Dr Buturo knew his fate well in advance. He, however, refused to further comment about him as a former colleague. “I do not want to be among the commentators on Buturo,” he added.
A few months after his appointment as Ethics minister, Parliament in October 2006 ordered Dr Buturo to pay back Shs20 million he received from Mega FM, a local radio station in Gulu. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told he had received the money while he was Information Minister. Dr Buturo, who put up a spirited defence against the allegations, eventually bowed to public pressure and paid the money in installments.
The outgoing MP for Bufumbira County East in Kisoro District, Dr Buturo recently lost his bid to return to Parliament as an independent candidate. He had lost the party ticket for his constituency in the NRM primaries.
Dr Buturo last year attributed his NRM primaries loss to ‘robbery from within’ his party, necessitating him to stand as an independent although others say he never delivered sufficiently to his electorate during his tenure. “My decision to run as an independent is not because I was disgruntled. I simply wanted to make a statement that immorality/wickedness should never be allowed to pay. I realised that if I had accepted the fraud, it would be allowing wickedness as a means to promotion and acquisition of whatever one may want in life in our nation,” Dr Buturo said in an interview with another daily newspaper, adding that his party president had shown what he called a “positive attitude to his candidature at the time”.
“His resignation means nothing,” former Ethics minister Miria Matembe told Daily Monitor. “He should have resigned immediately after being robbed by his corrupt colleagues in the NRM primaries,” she added.
Ms Matembe said although she thinks Dr Buturo may have genuinely wanted to fight corruption, he never clearly declared his stand on the vice.
“The Ethics ministry is no longer relevant to the NRM government,” Ms Matembe said. “While I was Ethics minister I did not hesitate to come out openly to condemn corrupt people and institutions. Yet I never clearly heard his stand on corruption.”
She added: “He never openly condemned his fellow ministers who were implicated in corruption scandals. He played it safe, taking political responsibility for collective corruption that thrives in that government. Corruption is the engine that drives the NRM. You only get persecuted when you fall out with government. Buturo facilitated it.”
Notwithstanding his alleged failure to deal with corruption within government, Dr Buturo will be remembered for his fire-fighting stance against what he chose to call a “perverted Ugandan society and an irresponsible media”. He often got in head-on battles with the Red Pepper, a tabloid, which to him published photographs of pornographic nature.
Dr Buturo had no kind words for the tabloid although, as fate would have it, his office shared the same floor and is directly opposite the tabloid’s sales and marketing office on Social Security House in Kampala.
The man who once wrote: “Uganda’s media and the entertainment industry should treat immorality as a subject that deserves our total rejection”, even advocated the publication of names and pictures of people who engage in prostitution as a way of deterring others from engaging in the vice. Fresh in the minds of many, however, is his contribution to the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
Dr Buturo told the international community that Uganda would never give equal rights to gays and lesbians nor has plans to legalise homosexuality. The Bill brought Uganda on the spotlight since some of its provisions demanded the death penalty.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Do gays have power to bring down a politician?
Mr. Buturo: Will he stop vilifying gays to win back his constituency in 2016
By Robert Atuhairwe
Mr. Buturo: Will he stop vilifying gays to win back his constituency in 2016
By Robert Atuhairwe
A Ugandan politician claims gays and lesbians caused his loss at the polls in General Elections held on February 18, this year.
Hon. James Nsaba Buturo has been a Minister of Ethics and Integrity resigned this week in the capital, Kampala after being caught in web of losing elections in Bufumbira East, crossing from his party (NRM) to the independent ticket and a Government plan to sack him and other ministers like him.
Buturo has been MP for his constituency since 2001. In the last election in 2006, he was unopposed. For all his misfortunes which have now brought him down to an ordinary MP who will soon be a private citizen come May, 12, the PHD holder blames his woes on gays. He says gays supported his opponent to defeat him.
Of course every loser in a contest can blame even the flimsiest of factors but Buturo is serious on what he is saying. He has been a leading crusader against gays in line with his Ministry’s docket.
Actually, the NRM party to which he belonged was behind the world-rattling Anti-Homosexual Bill that was almost passed into law by Uganda’s Parliament last year if it were not for worldwide condemnation. Fellow NRM legislator, David Bahati, tabled the Bill. The intended law prescribed the death penalty in some of its clauses.
Now this is where Buturo’s predicament gets more puzzling. As a Minister, he was simply acting as a government representative to manage the morals of Ugandans. He targeted not only gays, lesbians and bi-sexuals but also prostitutes, drunkards, the corrupt and thousands, perhaps millions, of other “immoral” people.
How interesting that of all the foregoing groups, it is the gays and lesbians that descended on him in Bufumbira East, decampaigned him and funded his opponent! As far as I know, many MPs on the NRM side and even on the opposition side supported the Bill. Many of them got re-elected and likewise, many of them lost.
Have the other losers feared to speak out on their cause of election misery or is Buturo simply crying foul using a weak excuse? Perhaps we should say the gays also campaigned for some MPs.
If that were the case, Hon. Bahati would have been the first casualty of the gays’ political prowess. They would have pumped billions into his constituency to crush him and pitched camp there. However, Bahati won a clean victory at the NRM primaries and was unopposed at last.
May be Hon. Buturo needs to take time and read the political trends in Bufumbira East. Is it a gay-dominated area? May be Bahati needs to educate the world on how to hate and fight gays but still win an election.
If the gay movement indeed has the power to bring down a politician in Uganda where the practice is said to be as alien as the extraterrestrials, then its membership figures have been grossly underestimated. Since no census has ever carried out to establish who is gay and who is not, may be the majority are. That being the case, governments (even elsewhere) need to beware what laws they enact as the gays will soon overpower them if they continue being fatally threatened.
I am only basing my assumption on the hope that Buturo’s case is genuine.
By Robert Atuhairwe
Mr. Buturo: Will he stop vilifying gays to win back his constituency in 2016
By Robert Atuhairwe
A Ugandan politician claims gays and lesbians caused his loss at the polls in General Elections held on February 18, this year.
Hon. James Nsaba Buturo has been a Minister of Ethics and Integrity resigned this week in the capital, Kampala after being caught in web of losing elections in Bufumbira East, crossing from his party (NRM) to the independent ticket and a Government plan to sack him and other ministers like him.
Buturo has been MP for his constituency since 2001. In the last election in 2006, he was unopposed. For all his misfortunes which have now brought him down to an ordinary MP who will soon be a private citizen come May, 12, the PHD holder blames his woes on gays. He says gays supported his opponent to defeat him.
Of course every loser in a contest can blame even the flimsiest of factors but Buturo is serious on what he is saying. He has been a leading crusader against gays in line with his Ministry’s docket.
Actually, the NRM party to which he belonged was behind the world-rattling Anti-Homosexual Bill that was almost passed into law by Uganda’s Parliament last year if it were not for worldwide condemnation. Fellow NRM legislator, David Bahati, tabled the Bill. The intended law prescribed the death penalty in some of its clauses.
Now this is where Buturo’s predicament gets more puzzling. As a Minister, he was simply acting as a government representative to manage the morals of Ugandans. He targeted not only gays, lesbians and bi-sexuals but also prostitutes, drunkards, the corrupt and thousands, perhaps millions, of other “immoral” people.
How interesting that of all the foregoing groups, it is the gays and lesbians that descended on him in Bufumbira East, decampaigned him and funded his opponent! As far as I know, many MPs on the NRM side and even on the opposition side supported the Bill. Many of them got re-elected and likewise, many of them lost.
Have the other losers feared to speak out on their cause of election misery or is Buturo simply crying foul using a weak excuse? Perhaps we should say the gays also campaigned for some MPs.
If that were the case, Hon. Bahati would have been the first casualty of the gays’ political prowess. They would have pumped billions into his constituency to crush him and pitched camp there. However, Bahati won a clean victory at the NRM primaries and was unopposed at last.
May be Hon. Buturo needs to take time and read the political trends in Bufumbira East. Is it a gay-dominated area? May be Bahati needs to educate the world on how to hate and fight gays but still win an election.
If the gay movement indeed has the power to bring down a politician in Uganda where the practice is said to be as alien as the extraterrestrials, then its membership figures have been grossly underestimated. Since no census has ever carried out to establish who is gay and who is not, may be the majority are. That being the case, governments (even elsewhere) need to beware what laws they enact as the gays will soon overpower them if they continue being fatally threatened.
I am only basing my assumption on the hope that Buturo’s case is genuine.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Four pastors charged in Kayanja case
By Edward Anyoli
FOUR city pastors were yesterday charged with conspiracy to injure the reputation of their colleague, Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre.
Those charged are Moses Solomon Male of Arising for Christ Church; Dr. Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church; Michael David Kyazze of Omega Healing Centre; Bob Robert Kayira of Omega Healing Centre and Anita Deborah Kyomuhendo, a State House employee.
The accused appeared before Buganda Road Court before Grade One Magistrate John Wekesa, but denied the charges. Court also issued criminal summons for David Mukalazi for failing appear in court to answer to the charge.
They were later granted a cash bail of sh200, 000 each and their sureties were to execute a non-cash bail of sh1m. The pastors were represented by Paul Rutisya, Isaac Walukagga and Edward Akankwasa.
Prosecution, led by Stephen Asaba, alleges that the four pastors, between December 2008 and 2009 at various places within Kampala, conspired to cause injury to the personality, reputation and trade of Pastor Kayanja.
Asaba did not oppose their bail application, but asked court to impose stringent conditions that would compel them to attend court whenever they are required.
The accused, according to prosecution, conspired to injure Kayanja’s reputation when they alleged that he was engaged in homosexual practices.
Pastors Kyazze and Kaiira are facing other charges at Mwanga II Court in which they are accused of entering Kayanja’s premises at Rubaga Miracle Centre with intent to intimidate and insult him. The offence, prosecution added, was committed on April 17, 2009.
Charges against two city advocates, Henry Ddungu and David Kaggwa, who had earlier been accused of conspiring with the pastors, were dropped due to lack of evidence.
FOUR city pastors were yesterday charged with conspiracy to injure the reputation of their colleague, Pastor Robert Kayanja of Rubaga Miracle Centre.
Those charged are Moses Solomon Male of Arising for Christ Church; Dr. Martin Sempa of Makerere Community Church; Michael David Kyazze of Omega Healing Centre; Bob Robert Kayira of Omega Healing Centre and Anita Deborah Kyomuhendo, a State House employee.
The accused appeared before Buganda Road Court before Grade One Magistrate John Wekesa, but denied the charges. Court also issued criminal summons for David Mukalazi for failing appear in court to answer to the charge.
They were later granted a cash bail of sh200, 000 each and their sureties were to execute a non-cash bail of sh1m. The pastors were represented by Paul Rutisya, Isaac Walukagga and Edward Akankwasa.
Prosecution, led by Stephen Asaba, alleges that the four pastors, between December 2008 and 2009 at various places within Kampala, conspired to cause injury to the personality, reputation and trade of Pastor Kayanja.
Asaba did not oppose their bail application, but asked court to impose stringent conditions that would compel them to attend court whenever they are required.
The accused, according to prosecution, conspired to injure Kayanja’s reputation when they alleged that he was engaged in homosexual practices.
Pastors Kyazze and Kaiira are facing other charges at Mwanga II Court in which they are accused of entering Kayanja’s premises at Rubaga Miracle Centre with intent to intimidate and insult him. The offence, prosecution added, was committed on April 17, 2009.
Charges against two city advocates, Henry Ddungu and David Kaggwa, who had earlier been accused of conspiring with the pastors, were dropped due to lack of evidence.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Uganda LGBT Community Gets Landmark Court Win Against Rollingstone Tabloid
The Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law in
Uganda warmly welcomes and applauds today’s decision by High Court
judge, Justice V.F. Kibuuka Musoke in the case of Kasha Jacqueline, Pepe Onziema & David Kato v. Giles Muhame and The Rolling Stone Publications Ltd. Through its members Kasha Jacqueline, David Kato and Patience Onziema, the Coalition filed a complaint in the High Court against the Rolling Stone.
The Court issued an interim order restraining the editors of the newspaper from any further publication of information about anyone alleged to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender until the case could be finally determined.
After an initial postponement, the merits of the case were heard on 23
November, 2010. The final ruling was read today, 3rd January 2011.
In considering whether the Rolling Stone’s publication of alleged homosexuals’ names, addresses and preferred social hang-outs constituted a violation of the applicant’s constitutional rights, the Court, ruled that:
1) The motion is not about homosexuality per se, but ‘...it is about
fundamental rights and freedoms,’ in particular about whether ‘the
publication infringed the rights of the applicants or threatened to do
so’.
2) The jurisdiction of Article 50 (1) of the Constitution is dual in nature, in that it extends not just to any person ‘whose fundamental rights or other rights or freedoms have been infringed in the first place,’ but also to ‘persons whose fundamental rights or other rights or freedoms are threatened to be infringed.’
3) Inciting people to hang homosexuals is an attack on the right to dignity of those thus threatened: ‘the call to hang gays in dozens tends to tremendously threaten their right to human dignity.’
4) Homosexuals are as entitled to the right to privacy as any other citizens. Against the ‘objective test’, ‘the exposure of the identities of the persons and homes of the applicants for the purposes of fighting gayism and the activities of gays...threaten the rights of the applicants to privacy of the person and their homes.’
5) Section 145 of the Penal Code Act cannot be used to punish personswho themselves acknowledge being, or who are perceived by others to be homosexual. Court ruled that ‘One has to commit an act prohibited under section 145 in order to be regarded as a criminal.’ Clearly this applies only to a person who has been found guilty by a court of law.
In terms of the relief sought by the applicants, court issued a ermanent injunction preventing The Rolling Stone and their managing editor, Mr. Giles Muhame, from ‘any further publications of the identities of the persons and homes of the applicants and homosexuals generally.’ The injunction thus provides broad protection to other Ugandans who are, or who are perceived to be homosexual, and the ruling provides an important precedent should any other media attempt to publish similar information. The court further awarded UGX. 1,500,000/= to each of the applicants, as well as ordering that the applicant shall recover their costs from the respondents.
The human rights community welcomes this ruling as a landmark in the
struggle for the protection of human dignity and the right to privacy
irrespective of one’s sexual orientation. According to Professor J. Oloka- Onyango, Director of the Human Rights & Peace Centre at the Faculty of Law, Makerere University, “This ruling serves as an important warning to anyone—Minister, Pastor or Boda-Boda rider—who believes that they can abuse, or threaten to abuse, the fundamental rights of fellow citizens with impunity. It also serves as a wake-up call to media houses that are making a mockery of the principles of freedom of speech and responsible
reporting.”
According to Adrian Jjuuko, Coordinator of the Coalition on Human Rights & Constitutional Law which sponsored the case, “The ruling also builds on the earlier High Court decision in Victor Mukasa & Another vs. Attorney
General (High Court Miscellaneous Cause No 24 of 2006), and firmly
establishes the principle that constitutionally protected rights belong to all Ugandans, whatever their perceived sexuality.”.
“While this injunction is a positive step for gay people in Uganda, the fact remains that the government of Uganda has for long been mute about the discrimination, threats and violence faced by LGBTI people in Uganda,” said Kasha Jacqueline, one of the applicants and also Director of Freedom & Roam Uganda.
The Rolling Stone is a tabloid which issued its fifth publication on 2 October, 2010. Its front page carried the headline “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak” which included the words “Hang Them!” Bullet points under the headline read, “We Shall Recruit 100,000 Innocent Kids by 2012:
Homos” and “Parents Now Face Heart-Breaks [sic] as Homos Raid Schools.”
The paper contained the names and in some cases the pictures and
description of where certain activists and human rights defenders live.
A later edition of the newspaper published on 31 October contained a further 17 photos of alleged LGBT people, with personal details of those identified, including where they lived. The Ugandan government made no response following either publication.
The Coalition believes that these developments are not accidental:
“The climate of fear created by the simple tabling of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in 2009 has already adversely affected not just Ugandan nationals, but also LGBTI asylum seekers. It is really time for the Government to explicitly reassure all people in Uganda, wherever they come from, that they intend to protect people against threats and violence regardless of their real or alleged sexual orientation,” said Dr Chris Dolan, Director of the Refugee Law Project at Makerere University. “This important ruling goes at least some way in the right direction”.
This ruling is a landmark not only for sexual and other minorities living in Uganda, but also an important precedent for other countries facing similar issues of state and media sponsored homophobia. As a Coalition concerned with human rights and constitutional law, we applaud the High Court for taking this principled step. In standing up for the rights of Uganda’s most marginalised they have at the same time strengthened the protection by the law of all people in Uganda.
Source : CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION ON HUMAN RIGHTS &
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
Uganda warmly welcomes and applauds today’s decision by High Court
judge, Justice V.F. Kibuuka Musoke in the case of Kasha Jacqueline, Pepe Onziema & David Kato v. Giles Muhame and The Rolling Stone Publications Ltd. Through its members Kasha Jacqueline, David Kato and Patience Onziema, the Coalition filed a complaint in the High Court against the Rolling Stone.
The Court issued an interim order restraining the editors of the newspaper from any further publication of information about anyone alleged to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender until the case could be finally determined.
After an initial postponement, the merits of the case were heard on 23
November, 2010. The final ruling was read today, 3rd January 2011.
In considering whether the Rolling Stone’s publication of alleged homosexuals’ names, addresses and preferred social hang-outs constituted a violation of the applicant’s constitutional rights, the Court, ruled that:
1) The motion is not about homosexuality per se, but ‘...it is about
fundamental rights and freedoms,’ in particular about whether ‘the
publication infringed the rights of the applicants or threatened to do
so’.
2) The jurisdiction of Article 50 (1) of the Constitution is dual in nature, in that it extends not just to any person ‘whose fundamental rights or other rights or freedoms have been infringed in the first place,’ but also to ‘persons whose fundamental rights or other rights or freedoms are threatened to be infringed.’
3) Inciting people to hang homosexuals is an attack on the right to dignity of those thus threatened: ‘the call to hang gays in dozens tends to tremendously threaten their right to human dignity.’
4) Homosexuals are as entitled to the right to privacy as any other citizens. Against the ‘objective test’, ‘the exposure of the identities of the persons and homes of the applicants for the purposes of fighting gayism and the activities of gays...threaten the rights of the applicants to privacy of the person and their homes.’
5) Section 145 of the Penal Code Act cannot be used to punish personswho themselves acknowledge being, or who are perceived by others to be homosexual. Court ruled that ‘One has to commit an act prohibited under section 145 in order to be regarded as a criminal.’ Clearly this applies only to a person who has been found guilty by a court of law.
In terms of the relief sought by the applicants, court issued a ermanent injunction preventing The Rolling Stone and their managing editor, Mr. Giles Muhame, from ‘any further publications of the identities of the persons and homes of the applicants and homosexuals generally.’ The injunction thus provides broad protection to other Ugandans who are, or who are perceived to be homosexual, and the ruling provides an important precedent should any other media attempt to publish similar information. The court further awarded UGX. 1,500,000/= to each of the applicants, as well as ordering that the applicant shall recover their costs from the respondents.
The human rights community welcomes this ruling as a landmark in the
struggle for the protection of human dignity and the right to privacy
irrespective of one’s sexual orientation. According to Professor J. Oloka- Onyango, Director of the Human Rights & Peace Centre at the Faculty of Law, Makerere University, “This ruling serves as an important warning to anyone—Minister, Pastor or Boda-Boda rider—who believes that they can abuse, or threaten to abuse, the fundamental rights of fellow citizens with impunity. It also serves as a wake-up call to media houses that are making a mockery of the principles of freedom of speech and responsible
reporting.”
According to Adrian Jjuuko, Coordinator of the Coalition on Human Rights & Constitutional Law which sponsored the case, “The ruling also builds on the earlier High Court decision in Victor Mukasa & Another vs. Attorney
General (High Court Miscellaneous Cause No 24 of 2006), and firmly
establishes the principle that constitutionally protected rights belong to all Ugandans, whatever their perceived sexuality.”.
“While this injunction is a positive step for gay people in Uganda, the fact remains that the government of Uganda has for long been mute about the discrimination, threats and violence faced by LGBTI people in Uganda,” said Kasha Jacqueline, one of the applicants and also Director of Freedom & Roam Uganda.
The Rolling Stone is a tabloid which issued its fifth publication on 2 October, 2010. Its front page carried the headline “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak” which included the words “Hang Them!” Bullet points under the headline read, “We Shall Recruit 100,000 Innocent Kids by 2012:
Homos” and “Parents Now Face Heart-Breaks [sic] as Homos Raid Schools.”
The paper contained the names and in some cases the pictures and
description of where certain activists and human rights defenders live.
A later edition of the newspaper published on 31 October contained a further 17 photos of alleged LGBT people, with personal details of those identified, including where they lived. The Ugandan government made no response following either publication.
The Coalition believes that these developments are not accidental:
“The climate of fear created by the simple tabling of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in 2009 has already adversely affected not just Ugandan nationals, but also LGBTI asylum seekers. It is really time for the Government to explicitly reassure all people in Uganda, wherever they come from, that they intend to protect people against threats and violence regardless of their real or alleged sexual orientation,” said Dr Chris Dolan, Director of the Refugee Law Project at Makerere University. “This important ruling goes at least some way in the right direction”.
This ruling is a landmark not only for sexual and other minorities living in Uganda, but also an important precedent for other countries facing similar issues of state and media sponsored homophobia. As a Coalition concerned with human rights and constitutional law, we applaud the High Court for taking this principled step. In standing up for the rights of Uganda’s most marginalised they have at the same time strengthened the protection by the law of all people in Uganda.
Source : CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION ON HUMAN RIGHTS &
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
Uganda LGBT Community Gets Landmark Court Win Against Rollingstone Tabloid
The Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law in
Uganda warmly welcomes and applauds today’s decision by High Court
judge, Justice V.F. Kibuuka Musoke in the case of Kasha Jacqueline, Pepe Onziema & David Kato v. Giles Muhame and The Rolling Stone Publications Ltd. Through its members Kasha Jacqueline, David Kato and Patience Onziema, the Coalition filed a complaint in the High Court against the Rolling Stone.
The Court issued an interim order restraining the editors of the newspaper from any further publication of information about anyone alleged to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender until the case could be finally determined.
After an initial postponement, the merits of the case were heard on 23
November, 2010. The final ruling was read today, 3rd January 2011.
In considering whether the Rolling Stone’s publication of alleged homosexuals’ names, addresses and preferred social hang-outs constituted a violation of the applicant’s constitutional rights, the Court, ruled that:
1) The motion is not about homosexuality per se, but ‘...it is about
fundamental rights and freedoms,’ in particular about whether ‘the
publication infringed the rights of the applicants or threatened to do
so’.
2) The jurisdiction of Article 50 (1) of the Constitution is dual in nature, in that it extends not just to any person ‘whose fundamental rights or other rights or freedoms have been infringed in the first place,’ but also to ‘persons whose fundamental rights or other rights or freedoms are threatened to be infringed.’
3) Inciting people to hang homosexuals is an attack on the right to dignity of those thus threatened: ‘the call to hang gays in dozens tends to tremendously threaten their right to human dignity.’
4) Homosexuals are as entitled to the right to privacy as any other citizens. Against the ‘objective test’, ‘the exposure of the identities of the persons and homes of the applicants for the purposes of fighting gayism and the activities of gays...threaten the rights of the applicants to privacy of the person and their homes.’
5) Section 145 of the Penal Code Act cannot be used to punish personswho themselves acknowledge being, or who are perceived by others to be homosexual. Court ruled that ‘One has to commit an act prohibited under section 145 in order to be regarded as a criminal.’ Clearly this applies only to a person who has been found guilty by a court of law.
In terms of the relief sought by the applicants, court issued a ermanent injunction preventing The Rolling Stone and their managing editor, Mr. Giles Muhame, from ‘any further publications of the identities of the persons and homes of the applicants and homosexuals generally.’ The injunction thus provides broad protection to other Ugandans who are, or who are perceived to be homosexual, and the ruling provides an important precedent should any other media attempt to publish similar information. The court further awarded UGX. 1,500,000/= to each of the applicants, as well as ordering that the applicant shall recover their costs from the respondents.
The human rights community welcomes this ruling as a landmark in the
struggle for the protection of human dignity and the right to privacy
irrespective of one’s sexual orientation. According to Professor J. Oloka- Onyango, Director of the Human Rights & Peace Centre at the Faculty of Law, Makerere University, “This ruling serves as an important warning to anyone—Minister, Pastor or Boda-Boda rider—who believes that they can abuse, or threaten to abuse, the fundamental rights of fellow citizens with impunity. It also serves as a wake-up call to media houses that are making a mockery of the principles of freedom of speech and responsible
reporting.”
According to Adrian Jjuuko, Coordinator of the Coalition on Human Rights & Constitutional Law which sponsored the case, “The ruling also builds on the earlier High Court decision in Victor Mukasa & Another vs. Attorney
General (High Court Miscellaneous Cause No 24 of 2006), and firmly
establishes the principle that constitutionally protected rights belong to all Ugandans, whatever their perceived sexuality.”.
“While this injunction is a positive step for gay people in Uganda, the fact remains that the government of Uganda has for long been mute about the discrimination, threats and violence faced by LGBTI people in Uganda,” said Kasha Jacqueline, one of the applicants and also Director of Freedom & Roam Uganda.
The Rolling Stone is a tabloid which issued its fifth publication on 2 October, 2010. Its front page carried the headline “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak” which included the words “Hang Them!” Bullet points under the headline read, “We Shall Recruit 100,000 Innocent Kids by 2012:
Homos” and “Parents Now Face Heart-Breaks [sic] as Homos Raid Schools.”
The paper contained the names and in some cases the pictures and
description of where certain activists and human rights defenders live.
A later edition of the newspaper published on 31 October contained a further 17 photos of alleged LGBT people, with personal details of those identified, including where they lived. The Ugandan government made no response following either publication.
The Coalition believes that these developments are not accidental:
“The climate of fear created by the simple tabling of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in 2009 has already adversely affected not just Ugandan nationals, but also LGBTI asylum seekers. It is really time for the Government to explicitly reassure all people in Uganda, wherever they come from, that they intend to protect people against threats and violence regardless of their real or alleged sexual orientation,” said Dr Chris Dolan, Director of the Refugee Law Project at Makerere University. “This important ruling goes at least some way in the right direction”.
This ruling is a landmark not only for sexual and other minorities living in Uganda, but also an important precedent for other countries facing similar issues of state and media sponsored homophobia. As a Coalition concerned with human rights and constitutional law, we applaud the High Court for taking this principled step. In standing up for the rights of Uganda’s most marginalised they have at the same time strengthened the protection by the law of all people in Uganda.
Source : CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION ON HUMAN RIGHTS &
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
Uganda warmly welcomes and applauds today’s decision by High Court
judge, Justice V.F. Kibuuka Musoke in the case of Kasha Jacqueline, Pepe Onziema & David Kato v. Giles Muhame and The Rolling Stone Publications Ltd. Through its members Kasha Jacqueline, David Kato and Patience Onziema, the Coalition filed a complaint in the High Court against the Rolling Stone.
The Court issued an interim order restraining the editors of the newspaper from any further publication of information about anyone alleged to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender until the case could be finally determined.
After an initial postponement, the merits of the case were heard on 23
November, 2010. The final ruling was read today, 3rd January 2011.
In considering whether the Rolling Stone’s publication of alleged homosexuals’ names, addresses and preferred social hang-outs constituted a violation of the applicant’s constitutional rights, the Court, ruled that:
1) The motion is not about homosexuality per se, but ‘...it is about
fundamental rights and freedoms,’ in particular about whether ‘the
publication infringed the rights of the applicants or threatened to do
so’.
2) The jurisdiction of Article 50 (1) of the Constitution is dual in nature, in that it extends not just to any person ‘whose fundamental rights or other rights or freedoms have been infringed in the first place,’ but also to ‘persons whose fundamental rights or other rights or freedoms are threatened to be infringed.’
3) Inciting people to hang homosexuals is an attack on the right to dignity of those thus threatened: ‘the call to hang gays in dozens tends to tremendously threaten their right to human dignity.’
4) Homosexuals are as entitled to the right to privacy as any other citizens. Against the ‘objective test’, ‘the exposure of the identities of the persons and homes of the applicants for the purposes of fighting gayism and the activities of gays...threaten the rights of the applicants to privacy of the person and their homes.’
5) Section 145 of the Penal Code Act cannot be used to punish personswho themselves acknowledge being, or who are perceived by others to be homosexual. Court ruled that ‘One has to commit an act prohibited under section 145 in order to be regarded as a criminal.’ Clearly this applies only to a person who has been found guilty by a court of law.
In terms of the relief sought by the applicants, court issued a ermanent injunction preventing The Rolling Stone and their managing editor, Mr. Giles Muhame, from ‘any further publications of the identities of the persons and homes of the applicants and homosexuals generally.’ The injunction thus provides broad protection to other Ugandans who are, or who are perceived to be homosexual, and the ruling provides an important precedent should any other media attempt to publish similar information. The court further awarded UGX. 1,500,000/= to each of the applicants, as well as ordering that the applicant shall recover their costs from the respondents.
The human rights community welcomes this ruling as a landmark in the
struggle for the protection of human dignity and the right to privacy
irrespective of one’s sexual orientation. According to Professor J. Oloka- Onyango, Director of the Human Rights & Peace Centre at the Faculty of Law, Makerere University, “This ruling serves as an important warning to anyone—Minister, Pastor or Boda-Boda rider—who believes that they can abuse, or threaten to abuse, the fundamental rights of fellow citizens with impunity. It also serves as a wake-up call to media houses that are making a mockery of the principles of freedom of speech and responsible
reporting.”
According to Adrian Jjuuko, Coordinator of the Coalition on Human Rights & Constitutional Law which sponsored the case, “The ruling also builds on the earlier High Court decision in Victor Mukasa & Another vs. Attorney
General (High Court Miscellaneous Cause No 24 of 2006), and firmly
establishes the principle that constitutionally protected rights belong to all Ugandans, whatever their perceived sexuality.”.
“While this injunction is a positive step for gay people in Uganda, the fact remains that the government of Uganda has for long been mute about the discrimination, threats and violence faced by LGBTI people in Uganda,” said Kasha Jacqueline, one of the applicants and also Director of Freedom & Roam Uganda.
The Rolling Stone is a tabloid which issued its fifth publication on 2 October, 2010. Its front page carried the headline “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak” which included the words “Hang Them!” Bullet points under the headline read, “We Shall Recruit 100,000 Innocent Kids by 2012:
Homos” and “Parents Now Face Heart-Breaks [sic] as Homos Raid Schools.”
The paper contained the names and in some cases the pictures and
description of where certain activists and human rights defenders live.
A later edition of the newspaper published on 31 October contained a further 17 photos of alleged LGBT people, with personal details of those identified, including where they lived. The Ugandan government made no response following either publication.
The Coalition believes that these developments are not accidental:
“The climate of fear created by the simple tabling of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in 2009 has already adversely affected not just Ugandan nationals, but also LGBTI asylum seekers. It is really time for the Government to explicitly reassure all people in Uganda, wherever they come from, that they intend to protect people against threats and violence regardless of their real or alleged sexual orientation,” said Dr Chris Dolan, Director of the Refugee Law Project at Makerere University. “This important ruling goes at least some way in the right direction”.
This ruling is a landmark not only for sexual and other minorities living in Uganda, but also an important precedent for other countries facing similar issues of state and media sponsored homophobia. As a Coalition concerned with human rights and constitutional law, we applaud the High Court for taking this principled step. In standing up for the rights of Uganda’s most marginalised they have at the same time strengthened the protection by the law of all people in Uganda.
Source : CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION ON HUMAN RIGHTS &
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
