Uganda LGBTQ community in 'climate of fear' since anti-gay law: HRW

Uganda's queer activist Papa De raises a fist outside the Uganda High Commission during a picket against the country's anti-homosexuality bill in Pretoria. April 4, 2023. [AFP]

Uganda's LGBTQ community faces worsening persecution since the country passed one of the world's harshest anti-gay laws two years ago, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday.

The Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 imposed penalties of up to life in prison for consensual same-sex relations and contained provisions that make "aggravated homosexuality" punishable by death.

Rights groups and international partners pulled funding and condemned the law.

HRW interviewed almost 60 people from the LGBTQ community, their families, activists, and politicians for a report on the law's impact.

"LGBT people, LGBT rights organisations, are living in a climate of fear because there's a law that justifies people taking out violence against them," HRW researcher Oyem Nyeko told AFP.

"(The law) made homophobia legitimate. It institutionalised it."

HRW said in the report that police had "harassed, extorted, and arbitrarily arrested and detained people based on their perceived or real sexual orientation or gender identity".

Interviewees said threatening phone calls had hugely increased since the law was passed.

"People would keep on calling you [saying]: 'We know where you stay. We know what you do," one told HRW.

Another activist said virtual threats had escalated until three men broke into her home in 2023, attacking her and sexually assaulting her friend.

"One of the men said: 'I am not just beating you for your unholiness but because you make me ashamed to be [ethnically] Ankole. If we want, we can kill you and no one will look for you," she told HRW, referring to one of Uganda's main ethnic groups.

Other rights groups in Uganda witnessed a similar trend after the law was passed.

"Within just 24 hours of parliament passing the law, they identified eight cases of physical and sexual violence, including cases of rape by men of people they presumed to be gay to 'convert' them to heterosexuality," said Defend Defenders, a Kampala-based organisation supporting activists.

"The number of requests (for assistance) is overwhelming," a member of the group told HRW.

The report noted that prominent LGBTQ organisations had been targeted, with groups banned and staff arrested or threatened.

Lawyers representing LGBTQ people were also victims of "heightened harassment", HRW said.

The NGO contacted the government, police, and public prosecutors to request information and present their research findings, but received no response.