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UN-GLOBE marches in the 2019 World Pride parade in celebration of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning/queer and intersex (LGBTQI) people everywhere. Credit: UN-GLOBE

By an IPS Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 29 2023 (IPS)

A group of UN experts* on human rights has blasted the Government of Uganda for making homosexuality punishable by death.

“It is an egregious violation of human rights, the experts said, urging Uganda’s president not to promulgate laws that take aim at and further criminalise people identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), and those who support and defend their human rights.

“The imposition of the death penalty based on such legislation is per se an arbitrary killing and a breach of article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),” the experts said, noting that this advice has been provided on several occasions to the Ugandan State in the past, according to a press release.

The Ugandan parliament recently approved harsh anti-LGBT laws that target and jeopardise the rights of LGBT persons and those who support and defend their human rights. The Ugandan legislation has been criticised as one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBT laws.

“The imposition of the death penalty for same-sex intimacy – including so-called ‘serial homosexuality’ – is an egregious violation of human rights,” the UN experts said.

They warned that the new legislation would exacerbate and legitimise continued stigmatisation, violence, harassment, and discrimination against LGBT persons and impact all spheres of their lives.

“LGBTI persons will constantly live in fear and stress for their life and physical integrity for simply living according to their sexual orientation,” the experts said, highlighting also the mental health-associated risks.

The experts said consistent acts of aggression, intimidation, and harassment and the proposed legislation threatened the physical and mental integrity and health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and other gender diverse persons in Uganda.

“Culture can never be a justification for such flagrant violations of human rights,” the experts said. They recalled the obligation of all stakeholders, including States, civil society and businesses, to promote social inclusion and contribute to stopping human rights abuses.

According to the experts, the Ugandan legislation comes after years of State-instigated and perpetuated discrimination and violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

The experts repeatedly raised serious concerns about escalating risks to the human rights of LGBT persons in Uganda over the past 15 years, including when other iterations of so-called “anti-homosexuality” laws were proposed in 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

In all cases, the draft bills were assessed as potentially leading to immediate violations to a substantial range of human rights, including the rights to life, liberty and security, privacy, equality and non-discrimination, freedom of association, peaceful assembly, opinion, expression, and the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, not to be subject to arbitrary arrest or detention, and the absolute prohibition against torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

“The new law is no exception and forms part of a worrying trend of intolerance, exacerbating stigma against LGBTI persons without any grounds or evidence,” they said.

The experts recalled that every person has the right to live peacefully and free from discrimination and violence. “We urge the President of Uganda to tread a new path towards respect of human rights and acceptance of difference, and reject the proposed law,” they said.

This content was originally published here.