Friday 16 May 2014

LGBT Abuse On the Rise in Uganda



Following on from SMUG's report at the beginning of the month, the findings from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch all back up the fact that rights violations have surged after implementation of Uganda’s anti-LGBT law:

Uganda's tough new anti-gay law has sparked a "surge in human rights violations", with people being arrested, evicted or losing their jobs, and at least one transgender person has been murdered, campaign groups said Thursday.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people have "faced a notable increase in arbitrary arrests, police abuse and extortion, loss of employment, evictions and homelessness, and scores have fled the country," Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International said in a joint report.

It all makes for grim reading:


Among the most feared repercussions of the bill is the curtailing of LGBT people's access to health services and HIV prevention despite a pledge by the health minister that LGBT people would not be discriminated against.
According to the research, in April police raided the Makerere University Walter Reed Project, a U.S.-funded HIV research and treatment center that serves the LGBT community.
In many cases, patient confidentiality has reportedly been violated. 


Since the bill passed in December 2013, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are aware of at least 17 people who have been arrested based on allegations of consensual same-sex conduct with other adults or, in some cases, simply on the suspicion of appearing to be LGBTI.

Uganda: a shining example of how quickly society can collapse.

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