Human Rights Commissioner on the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda and the publication of a list of Uganda's “top homosexuals”

BERLIN, Germany, February 25, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Christoph Strässer, the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid, today (25 February) issued the following statement on the signing into law of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill by the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and on the publication of a list of Uganda's “top homosexuals”:

I condemn the signing into law of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in the strongest possible terms. I also condemn the publication of a list of names of “top homosexuals” on the front page of a Ugandan newspaper. Such a publication violates the human rights of the people concerned, including their right to privacy and equal treatment.

Human rights are universal and indivisible. The Ugandan state is under an obligation to respect, protect and promote the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. The media, too, have a duty to respect human rights. I call upon the Ugandan state to protect all its citizens against violence, exclusion, discrimination and arbitrary punishment and to abolish all laws that contravene human rights obligations, including the Anti-Homosexuality Bill that was signed yesterday.

Background:

Uganda's President Museveni yesterday signed into law an Anti-Homosexuality Bill making it a punishable offence to engage in homosexual acts and for activists and organisations to support the human rights of LGBTI people. The spectrum of possible punishment ranges up to life in prison. One day after the law came into effect, a newspaper published a list of 200 “top homosexuals”.