Uganda's unrelenting legislative efforts to criminalise same-sex relations: Implications for human rights

The first direct legal instrument promoting homophobia and aimed at criminalising all sexual acts of intimacy by LGBTI persons in Uganda was the 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The Bill was widely criticised by human rights groups, foreign governments and international organisations, and was eventually withdrawn in 2011. In 2013 the Ugandan Parliament passed a new version of the Bill, which was signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni but was later, in August 2014, overturned on technical grounds by the Ugandan Constitutional Court. In May 2023 the Ugandan Parliament passed a new Anti-Homosexuality Act, which is the focus of this article. This Act attracted world-wide condemnation as the harshest legislation ever against LGBTI persons. The article begins with a historical context of legislative efforts to criminalise same-sex relations in Uganda before focusing on the latest Anti-Homosexuality Act. In order to understand the human rights implications of the legislation, a discussion of certain aspects and contents of the Act is undertaken. The human rights implications of the legislation are then discussed, before concluding with some recommendations on how the rights of LGBTI persons in Uganda can be protected in the face of such legislative and societal hostility.