African news. Uganda anti-LGBTQ+ bill. Members of European Parliament (MEPs) have denounced Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ+ bill and called for the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality and transgender identity.
Parliament highlights that the Bill, which proposes the death penalty, life imprisonment or up to 20 years in prison for the offences of ‘homosexuality’ or its ‘promotion’, violates the Ugandan Constitution, Uganda’s obligations to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, and international law.
Ugandan MP’s passed an anti-homosexuality bill that imposes the death penalty or imprisonment for anyone engaging or identifying as any part of the LGBTQ+ spectrum. The legislation, which was supposed to be forwarded and approved by the president, will also call for life in prison for anyone engaging in gay sex and is meant to stifle the LGBTQ+ community’s advancements in this front.
Find more information about this here; Uganda passes harsh anti-homosexuality bill that imposes death penalty for identifying as gay
MEPs express their concern over the possible impact of the Bill in the African region, given the growing trend of criminalising LGBTIQ people in some parts of Africa, such as Ghana, Niger and Kenya. The resolution deplores President Museveni’s contribution to the hateful rhetoric about LGBTIQ persons, adding that EU-Uganda relations will be at stake should the President sign the Bill.
According to news media Europarl, the Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) should use all necessary diplomatic, legal and financial means to convince the President to not sign the law and establish an EU strategy for the universal decimalisation of homosexuality and transgender identity.
MEPs are worried about the current global anti-rights, anti-gender and anti-LGBTIQ movements, which are fuelled by some political and religious leaders around the world, including within the EU.
Such movements hinder efforts to achieve universal decriminalisation of homosexuality an transgender identity as they legitimise the false notion that LGBTQIA members are an ideology rather than human beings.