The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said Monday was “appalled” by the adoption of a new law against homosexuality in Uganda, which provides for prison sentences and the death penalty for certain crimes.
“We are shocked that this draconian, discriminatory and anti-gay law has become law.”the agency headed by UN High Commissioner Volker Türk stated on its official Twitter account.
“It is a recipe for systematic patterns of LGBTQ people and the general population, creating a conflict with the constitution and international treaties, and urgent judicial review is needed,” added the cabinet, which had already condemned the bill . .
The new legislation was also condemned by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), which expressed deep concern at the instructions of the new legislation in a joint statement with other international health organizations.
The law “will hinder health education and efforts to end AIDS as a threat to public health,” the statement said, noting that LGBTQ people have already been stigmatized during the months-long debate over the law, which restricts their access to limited care and treatment.
“Uganda’s community increasingly fears for their safety and a growing number of people are discouraged from seeking health services, facing attacks, punishment or even further marginalization,” a joint statement laments.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed a bill Monday that would maintain the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” (a broad term used to include intimate relationships with a minor or other separate groups).
Furthermore, anyone who “knowingly promotes homosexuality” could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, a provision that has not changed from the original bill.
The legislation has also been heavily criticized by the European Union and the United States, as well as human rights groups such as Amnesty International.
Uganda currently has a 1950 law – the country gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1962 – which punishes intimate relationships between people of the same sex with sentences of up to life imprisonment, although it is usually not enforced.
Source: DN
