Amnesty International has criticized Uganda’s Constitutional Court for only revokeing parts of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 (AHA), which has led to increased attacks on LGBTI people.
The AHA criminalizes consensual same-sex acts, promotes homosexuality, and contemplates the death penalty for aggravated homosexuality.
Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, called for the entire AHA to be repealed and held accountable for the attacks.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act, approved by President Yoweri Museveni in May 2023, is one of the most extreme anti-LGBTI laws globally.
Since it’s inception the act has been responsible for 55 arrests under the law, three death penalty cases forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions, eight forced anal examination cases, 254 evictions of persons accused to be or associate with LGBTI people and 202 other cases of actual or threatened violence.
Proponents of equality filed a petition challenging the constitutionality of the law, arguing it violates rights guaranteed in Uganda’s constitution.
Since the 2014 revokement of the AHA, efforts have been made to further criminalize homosexuality, including the Sexual Offenses Bill in 2021 which criminalized “any sexual act between persons of the same gender”
