Causecast

by CLAIRE MORGENSTERN, Contributing Writer

The Ugandan government is set to pass a bill condemning homosexuality. If it does, Sweden has threatened to withdraw the annual $50 million in aid it provides to the African country.

The stipulations of the bill, introduced for the first time in October, would forbid providing resources for homosexuals or publishing information about homosexuality (punishable by up to seven years in prison), criminalize the work of national and international human rights defenders on behalf of individuals in Uganda, and compromise health organizations’ abilities to provide HIV/AIDS prevention efforts. It also stipulates that any citizen who doesn’t disclose the identities of all GLBT individuals they know could face imprisonment for up to three years. It insinuates that any individual that is a known homosexual, which the bill terms exhibiting “aggravated homosexuality,” will face the death penalty.

“The ‘anti-homosexuality bill’ introduced in Uganda’s parliament would violate human rights and should be withdrawn immediately,” Human Rights Watch reported in a news brief written on behalf of 17 local and international human rights organizations on Oct. 15. Critics of the bill believe that striking at what is already one of Uganda’s most marginalized groups will only serve divide society, endanger homosexuals and homosexual culture, and potentially worsen the current AIDS epidemic.

"Certain provisions in this bill are illegal; they are also immoral," said Kate Sheill, sexual rights expert for Amnesty international, in the news statement.

Gunilla Carlsson, Sweden’s minister of developmental assistance, called the bill “appalling” and stated that the bill, if passed, would put the $50 million that Uganda receives from Sweden in jeopardy. However, Carlsson also spoke of new ways to funnel money to needy populations in Uganda by working with NGOs, including those targeted by the new legislation, rather than directly with the Ugandan government. Leaders in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States have also denounced the proposed laws.

Dr. Nsaba Buturo, minister for ethics and integrity in Uganda, defended not only the content of the bill itself, but also the country’s independence to draft laws that will govern its own people, regardless of the views of other countries from whom Uganda is receiving financial support. He chastised countries such as Sweden for providing such “conditional support” that, if withdrawn purely based on notions of homosexual ideology, will deny many of the country’s poorest citizens basic resources.

David Bahati, the lawmaker who authored the bill, believes that the new legislation would promote family values and human rights, and that homosexuality was not one of those rights.

International development experts have suggested that the introduction of the bill may be a sign that international donors have become less important since Uganda has become more involved in the oil industry and experienced steady economic growth over the last several decades. However, many also believe that the final draft of the bill will have some minor changes meant to appease donors, who together fund about one third of Uganda’s budget.

Bahati maintains that the bill is about national dignity, and that money is not a factor.

Others believe that the bill was introduced to strategically distract the public from issues of political corruption in light of the upcoming national vote in 2011, and that the impending vote may deter other nations and international organizations from taking action to impede the bill’s progress.

If passed, local and international gay rights activists and human rights organizations said that they would challenge the new law in constitutional court.

Homosexuals are already persecuted under Uganda’s existing laws, which allow police to arbitrarily arrest, detain and even torture individuals they believe have engaged in homosexual sex. Those who are suspected of being gay experience assault and death threats and are fired from their jobs and ostracized by their families and communities.

Read the statement written by Human Rights Watch and endorsed by 16 other human rights organizations.

E-mail the Ugandan Ambassadors to the U.S. and U.N. to encourage them to dismiss the anti-homosexuality bill.

Photo by TSgt. Jeremy T. Lock, Wikimedia Commons.