https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/21/africa/uganda-lgbtq-law-passes-intl/index.html
當地時間3月21日，烏幹達國會以387票同意、2票反對通過強硬的反同性戀法案，該法案規定涉及同性戀行為者或對同性戀活動進行招攬、推廣和資助者，可被處以死刑。
根據英國《衛報》報道，3月21日，烏幹達國會議員通過了一項有爭議的反LGBTQ+法案，該法案規定同性戀行為可被處以死刑，這引起了當地權利運動者的強烈譴責。周二晚些時候，389名立法者中除兩人外，全部投票支持強硬的反同性戀法案，該法案對同性性行為和“招攬、推廣和資助”同性“活動”規定了死刑和終身監禁。
烏幹達法律和議會事務主席羅賓娜·魯瓦庫霍提交的法案寫道：“犯有嚴重同性戀罪的人，一經定罪，將被判處死刑”。
隻有兩名來自執政黨的議員Fox Odoi-Oywelowo和Paul Kwizera Bucyana反對這項新法案。Odoi-Oywelowo說：“該法案考慮不周，它包含了違反憲法的條款，逆轉了在打擊基於性別的暴力方麵取得的成果。”
該法案的早期版本曾引起了廣泛的國際批評，後來被烏幹達憲法法院以程序性理由宣布無效。該法案現在將提交給穆塞韋尼總統，他可以否決或簽署該法案成為法律。在最近的一次講話中，他似乎對該法案表示支持。
人權運動者譴責了這一嚴酷法案，將其描述為 “仇恨立法”。
同性性行為一直不被烏幹達承認。根據英國廣播公司BBC的報道，2013年，烏幹達議會曾通過法案，提高對同性戀行為的刑罰，最高可以被判終身監禁。法案還包括，對同性戀行為“知情不報”也是犯罪行為，能被判入獄服刑。該法案對象包括在烏幹達的外國人在內。
Uganda parliament passes bill criminalizing identifying as LGBTQ, imposes death penalty for some offenses
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/21/africa/uganda-lgbtq-law-passes-intl/index.html
By Larry Madowo and Catherine Nicholls, CNN March 22, 2023
Ugandan lawmakers on Tuesday approved some of the world’s harshest anti-gay laws, making some crimes punishable by death and imposing up to 20 years in prison for people identifying as LGBTQ+.
The new legislation constitutes a further crackdown on LGBTQ+ people in a country where same-sex relations were already illegal – punishable by life imprisonment. It targets an array of activities, and includes a ban on promoting and abetting homosexuality as well as conspiracy to engage in homosexuality, Reuters reported.
According to the bill, the death penalty can be invoked for cases involving “aggravated homosexuality” – a broad term used in the legislation to describe sex acts committed without consent or under duress, against children, people with mental or physical disabilities, by a “serial offender,” or involving incest.
“A person who commits the offense of aggravated homosexuality and is liable, on conviction to suffer death,” read the amendments, which were presented by the chairperson for legal and parliamentary affairs Robina Rwakoojo.
Opposition lawmaker Asuman Basalirwa introduced the Anti Homosexuality Bill 2023 to parliament, saying it aims to “protect our church culture; the legal, religious and traditional family values of Ugandans from the acts that are likely to promote sexual promiscuity in this country.”
“The objective of the bill was to establish a comprehensive and enhanced legislation to protect traditional family values, our diverse culture, our faiths, by prohibiting any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex and the promotion or recognition of sexual relations between persons of the same sex,” Basalirwa said on Tuesday.
Lawmaker Fox Odoi-Oywelowo spoke out against the bill, saying it “contravenes established international and regional human rights standards” as it “unfairly limits the fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ persons.”
Rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned earlier this month that the law would violate Ugandans’ rights.
“One of the most extreme features of this new bill is that it criminalizes people simply for being who they are as well as further infringing on the rights to privacy, and freedoms of expression and association that are already compromised in Uganda,” HRW Uganda researcher Oryem Nyeko said in a statement that called on politicians in the country to “stop targeting LGBT people for political capital.”
The bill is expected to eventually go to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for assent. Museveni last week derided homosexuals as “deviants.”
Anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment is deeply entrenched in the highly conservative and religious East African nation.
Uganda made headlines in 2009 when it introduced an anti-homosexuality bill that included a death sentence for gay sex.
The country’s lawmakers passed a bill in 2014, but they replaced the death penalty clause with a proposal for life in prison. That law was ultimately struck down.
CNN’s Hannah Ritchie contributed reporting.
Uganda anti-gay law challenged in court
Ugandan activists are seeking to overturn the country's tough anti-gay law by petitioning the constitutional court to declare it invalid.
Signed by Uganda's veteran president, Yoweri Museveni, in February, the law calls for homosexuals to be jailed for life, outlaws the promotion of homosexuality and obliges Ugandans to denounce gay people to the authorities.
The activists argue that the law was passed in parliament without the necessary quorum of lawmakers. The 10 petitioners – including two Ugandan rights organisations – also claim that the law violates the constitutional right to privacy and dignity, as well as the right to be free from discrimination and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
Judges have adjourned the hearings until Friday, when they are expected to rule on the quorum issue.
Ugandan state lawyers defended the law on Thursday, the second day of the hearings, asking judges to dismiss the petition. "There is no evidence about the quorum," state attorney Patricia Mutesa told the court in the capital, Kampala.
But prominent gay-rights activist Frank Mugisha, one of the petitioners, said he was optimistic that judges would rule in favour of scrapping the law. "I think that we could have a very good judgment tomorrow, and if we get that judgment then it's over – and we just have to celebrate," said Mugisha, who heads the Sexual Minorities Uganda group.
Anti-gay preacher Martin Ssempa, who was also in court, said he feared the "judicial abortion of our bill" due to international pressure.
"This case is moving at lightning speed," he said, claiming the petition was being pushed to polish Uganda's international reputation before Museveni travels to Washington next week to meet President Barack Obama at a landmark US-Africa summit.
"There are efforts … to drum up a legal precedent to try to show [Washington] that, 'Hey, we are not that bad on homosexuality,'" Ssempa claimed.
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, has likened the Ugandan law to antisemitic legislation in Nazi Germany.
