The passing of this discriminatory bill – probably among the worst of its kind in the world – is a deeply troubling development,” said Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the law would undermine fundamental human rights and “reverse gains in the fight against HIV/Aids”. He urged authorities to reconsider implementation of the law.
Uganda’s legislature passed the bill late on Tuesday in a protracted session during which last-minute changes were made to the legislation that originally included penalties of up to 10 years in jail for homosexual offences.
In the version passed by lawmakers, the offence of “aggravated homosexuality” now carries the death penalty.
Aggravated homosexuality applies in cases of sex relations involving those infected with HIV as well as minors and other categories of vulnerable people.
According to the bill, a suspect convicted of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” can be jailed for 14 years, and the offence of “attempted homosexuality” is punishable by up to 10 years.
The offence of “homosexuality” is punishable by life imprisonment, the same punishment prescribed in a colonial-era penal code criminalising sex acts “against the order of nature”.
The bill was introduced last month by an opposition lawmaker who said his goal was to punish “promotion, recruitment and funding” related to LGBTQ+ activities in the east African country where gay people are widely disparaged.
The bill now goes to President Yoweri Museveni, who can veto or sign it into law. However, he suggested in a recent speech that he supported the legislation, accusing unnamed western nations of “trying to impose their practices on other people”.
“If signed into law by the president, it will render lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Uganda criminals simply for existing, for being who they are,” said Mr Turk in a statement. “It could provide carte blanche for the systematic violation of nearly all of their human rights and serve to incite people against each other.”
Anti-gay sentiment in Uganda has grown in recent weeks amid alleged reports of sodomy in boarding schools, including a prestigious one for boys where a parent accused a teacher of abusing her son. Authorities are investigating that case.
The recent decision of the Church of England to bless civil marriages of same-sex couples also has inflamed many, including some who see homosexuality as imported from abroad.
The Ugandan agency overseeing the work of non-governmental organisations last year stopped the operations of Sexual Minorities Uganda, the most prominent LGBTQ+ organisation in the country, accusing it of failing to register legally.
However, the group’s leader stated that his organisation had been rejected by the registrar of companies as undesirable.
Homosexuality is criminalised in more than 30 of Africa’s 54 countries.