Activists protest demanding EU to sanction Uganda over anti-LGBTQ act

  

More than a dozen activists protested in front of the European Union Delegation to the United States in D.C. and demanded the EU to sanction Uganda over the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act.

They urged the European Union to respond more forcefully to Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act and to punish the officials who spurred its enactment.

“The European Union should immediately announce a comprehensive review of all of its funding to Uganda, and should pause or reprogram any funds that go via government entities. Any essential humanitarian support should be rerouted to non-government organizations who are committed to providing services to and employing LGBTIQ people,” they said in a statement.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni last May signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act that, among other things, contains a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality.” 

The country’s Constitutional Court refused to nullify the Anti-Homosexuality Act in its totality. A group of Ugandan LGBTQ activists have appealed the ruling.

This law violates basic human rights and sets a dangerous precedent for discrimination and persecution against the LGBTQ community. Same-sex relationships were already against the law in Uganda before the signing of the bill, as they are in more than half of countries in Africa.

The Biden Administration called for immediate repeal and threatened to cut aid and investment to Uganda. The U.S. removed Uganda from the list of nations eligible to benefit from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allows eligible sub-Saharan African nations to export over 1,800 products to the U.S. duty-free.