According to an international NGO, Uganda’s LGBTQ community is now facing increased persecution as a result of the passage of severe anti-gay laws two years ago.
Since the passage of the 2023 law, Human Rights Watch (HRW) claimed that Ugandan authorities have “perpetrated widespread discrimination and violence” and “spread misinformation and hatred against LGBT people.”
Consensual same-sex relationships were made subject to the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act’s “aggravated homosexuality” and “aggravated homosexuality” being executed for both.
Rights organizations and international partners criticized the law and withdrew funding as a result of it becoming law.
According to the HRW report, the government has followed up the law with a persecution campaign that details widespread police abuse, including arbitrary arrests made based on perceived or actual sexual orientation or gender identity.
HRW discovered that the law has increased previously unheard forms of discrimination and abuse against LGBTQ people to unprecedented levels. The report also provided a detailed account of the law’s permitted rights violations and the devastating impact it has had on Uganda’s LGBTQ community, activists, allies, and their families.
The report notes that the Ugandan authorities used traditional and social media to spread hate and misinformation about LGBTQ people, which increased the number of attacks and harassment against them and LGBTQ rights groups in the months leading up to and following the law’s passage.
LGBT Ugandans have experienced a variety of abuses in the past two years as a result of the government’s willful deed, according to senior researcher for HRW, Oryem Nyeko.
The Ugandan government must immediately alter this environment, which allows for a wide range of human rights violations and puts countless Ugandans at risk of being abducted.
The interviewees reported a rise in threats sent to them.
People would keep calling you, saying, “We know where you stay,” they would continue. We are aware of your actions, one employee told HRW.
Another activist described how online threats got worse before three men attacked her and sexually assaulted a friend before breaking into her home in 2023.
She claimed to HRW that an assailant had insulted me and said, “You make me ashamed of being Ankole.” No one will search for you if we want to kill you. ” One of the main ethnic groups in Uganda is the Ankole.
Since the passage of the law, similar patterns have been reported by other Ugandan rights organizations.
Eight incidents of physical and sexual abuse, including corrective rape, were identified within the first 24 hours of its enactment, according to Kampala-based DefendDefenders.
A staff member told HRW, “The number of requests for assistance is overwhelming.”
According to the report, prominent LGBTQ organizations were also targeted by harassment of queer clients and group bans.
Source: Aljazeera
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