MEPs denounce Uganda’s anti-LGBTIQ Bill and call for the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality and transgender identity.
Parliament highlights that the Bill, which proposes the death penalty, life imprisonment or up to 20 years in prison for the offences of ‘homosexuality’ or its ‘promotion’, violates the Ugandan Constitution, Uganda’s obligations to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, and international law.
MEPs express their concern over the possible impact of the Bill in the African region, given the growing trend of criminalising LGBTIQ people in some parts of Africa, such as Ghana, Niger and Kenya. The resolution deplores President Yoweri Museveni’s contribution to the hateful rhetoric about LGBTIQ persons, adding that EU-Uganda relations will be at stake should the President sign the Bill.
The Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS) should use all necessary diplomatic, legal and financial means to convince the President to not sign the law and establish an EU strategy for the universal decimalisation of homosexuality and transgender identity.
LGBTIQ people are not an ideology
MEPs are worried about the current global anti-rights, anti-gender and anti-LGBTIQ movements, which are fuelled by some political and religious leaders around the world, including within the EU. These movements dramatically hinder efforts to achieve the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality and transgender identity, they say, as they legitimise the rhetoric that claims LGBTIQ people are an ideology rather than human beings. MEPs strongly condemn the spreading of such rhetoric by some influential political leaders and governments in the EU,
The resolution was adopted with 416 votes in favour, 62 against and 36 abstentions.
