The anti-LGBTQ+ bill recently passed in Uganda has damaged the country’s relationship with big Western donors who consider this to be one of the world’s most radical anti-LGBTQ+ laws. The bill, which President Museveni signed into law on May 30 and which provides for life imprisonment and even the death penalty for gay behavior, has caused international outrage.
Uganda, which hosts 1.5 million refugees, the largest number in Africa, has a crippled healthcare system and will see its economy and humanitarian sectors affected if the reception of foreign aid into the country continues to shrink. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Uganda is the continent’s sixth-largest recipient of international aid which accounts for about 40% of the country’s budget, particularly for crucial areas such as health and education according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Donors slam anti-LGBTQ law
The US, which is the biggest donor investing about $1 billion every year in Ugandan communities, has warned that it will restrict and review all dealings with the country. Furthermore, access to the United States for certain Ugandan leaders has been restricted. One such case is the Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, whose US visa has already been revoked.
On July 25, almost a dozen members of Congress wrote to the World Bank asking the organization “to immediately postpone and suspend all current and future lending to Uganda until the recently enacted Anti-Homosexuality Act, signed by President Yoweri Museveni on May 29, 2023, is struck down.”
The letter states that although the World Bank “unquestionably supports efforts to promote long-term economic development and poverty reduction in Uganda, the recent law mandates state-sponsored discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ individuals, creating a humanitarian crisis that plainly violates World Bank stated policies”.
The letter from the members of Congress aligns with that of 170 influential advocacy organizations sent in June that urged the World Bank to take action, including stopping the payment of current loans to Uganda and suspending future lending to the country until the law is repealed by the Constitutional Court. The European Union has also condemned the law, calling it “shameful”, and has threatened Uganda with sanctions. The World Bank and other foreign agencies are now also expected to rethink their relationship with the East African nation.
UK continues to allocate aid to Uganda
The only donor country that has continued to show commitment to sending aid to Uganda since the anti-gay law came into force is the UK. However, this is only because the UK sends aid to a number of East African countries.
The UK Minister for Development and Africa, Andrew Mitchell, stated in May this year that it would provide Uganda with £7 million in foreign aid but this is only a fraction of the £143 million in humanitarian aid pledged by the UK for the fiscal year 2023-2024 for people affected by food shortages, drought, violence, and climate change in East Africa.
Of the £143 million package, Somalia will receive £48 million, Ethiopia £42 million, Sudan £21.7 million, and South Sudan £18.9 million while Uganda will receive just £7 million.
Activists stand up against “defective” law
Ugandan activists and experts are requesting that the country’s Constitutional Court reviews the law which they have labelled “unjust” and “discriminatory”. According to Adrian Jjuuko, Executive Director of the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, the law contradicts “human rights principles such as equality and dignity”. He also contends that the bill is defective because “it was passed by legislators with no public input, including from the LGTBQ+ community”.
Ashwanee Budoo-Scholz, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch in Africa, stated in a public statement that the bill “violates several fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, privacy, and equity in Uganda, where violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ people is already commonplace”.
This is not the first time that Uganda has put an institutional homophobia law to the test. The government attempted to adopt the same legislation in 2014 but lost US$110 million in cuts to financial aid from the World Bank, Sweden, and Denmark until the Constitutional Court eventually overturned the ruling on a simple technicality.
Same-sex relationships were previously prohibited in Uganda under colonial-era legislation that punished “unnatural carnal knowledge” with a life sentence. The new law is significantly harsher, with gay behavior leading to life imprisonment and the death penalty for extreme cases such as having sexual relations with a minor or transmitting HIV.
