NGOs’ gay plans leak, govt furious
Wednesday, 27 June 2012 00:43
These strategies include how to raise funds and recruit ‘friendly’ journalists into the cause of fighting for homosexual rights in Uganda. Some sources have told The Observer that security operatives infiltrated gay groups and managed to get a document containing minutes of the meeting.
The unsigned document, a copy of which we have seen, names 41 people, from 23 NGOs, as having attended the meeting on May 4, 2012, under the coordination of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CSCHRCL).
The organisations in attendance, we have been told, are among those that the government is threatening to ban because of their LGBT advocacy work. The document shows that this was the 7th such strategy general meeting.
Icebreakers Uganda, which hosted the meeting, is a community-based organisation that supports the rights of LGBT people in the country. The NGOs discussed, among others, “developing a media strategy and strategic arguments against all the sexual bills and for decriminalisation” with a view to “changing opinions and convincing the public”.
This strategy involves “mapping out friendly journalists, as well as hostile and ignorant ones” with the objective of “identifying trainable journalists to become allies and objective reporters on sexual minority and gender identity issues”.
The plan is to raise a list of “40 journalists of a mixture of friendly, hostile and ignorant”. The strategy, whose aim is “gaining acceptance for the sexual minority groups”, with a time frame of June 2012 to June 2013, lists among its activities, workshops, talk-shows, barazas and parliamentary advocacy programmes for legislators.
The plan is to roll out implementation of the strategy through civil society groups spread throughout the country. There is also a well laid-out plan to lobby the national, regional and international community to pile pressure on the Uganda government to abandon the Anti-Homosexuality bill and any other laws hostile to homosexuals.
Lokodo excited
The document has reportedly given Rev Simon Lokodo, the minister in charge of Ethics and Integrity, ammunition to go after gay activists with renewed zeal. Shortly before leaving for an official trip abroad last week, an excited Lokodo, upon seeing the document, said he had finally obtained the information he needed to fight homosexuality in Uganda.“These people are disruptive; they are promoting a negative culture contrary to the laws of this country. They are promoting homosexuality and lesbianism as an acceptable culture, and this is ruining our lives,” Lokodo said.
He added: “This is not going to stop. We will support the bill. There is now sufficient evidence to move against these evil people. We’ll punish them with a deterrent punishment. We are looking for a day when this law is going to take shape.”
Last Wednesday, Lokodo announced that the government would ban 38 NGOs deemed sympathetic to activities of LGBT people in the country. He said he had passed the list of the NGOs to the Internal Affairs minister to get all of them deregistered, as they were engaging in an illegal activity. Lokodo told journalists that the NGOs were receiving support from abroad and “recruiting” young children into the vice.
“We found that, on the pretext of humanitarian concerns, these organisations are being used to promote negative cultures. They are encouraging homosexuality as if it is the best form of sexual behaviour,” he said.
The previous day, the police had halted a workshop of gay rights activists at Esella country hotel in Najjeera, in the outskirts of Kampala, and briefly detained some participants and staff members of the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP), one of the organisers of the event.
Njoroge Njenga, a programme officer with Freedom House, an American NGO, while admitting knowing some of the names of participants at the strategy May 4 meeting, said he was not aware of the specific details of that meeting, because he had only recently arrived in Uganda.
Neil Blazevic, one of the activists detained together with Njenga last Tuesday, is named as participant number 29 on the attendance list of the May 4 NGOs’ meeting at Ice Breakers Uganda.
Gay Bill
Article 31 (2a) of the constitution, as well as provisions of the Ugandan Penal Code Act, prohibit same sex relationships. Two years ago, Ndorwa West MP, David Bahati, moved a private member’s bill, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, seeking to impose tougher punishment for promotion of, and involvement in, homosexuality.Although the bill enjoys ample support across Uganda, western governments have piled pressure on Kampala to stop the legislation on human rights grounds. Last week, Bahati, while commenting on the latest campaign against gay activists, said his bill intended “to stop the promotion, recruitment, funding and same sex marriages”.
He insists that Uganda must stand firm and reject attempts by people who want to promote activities of LGBT people, adding that homosexuality is not a human rights issue in Uganda because it is illegal.
When told about the meeting minutes that Lokodo’s people had found, Bahati said: “If it is true that such a document has been [obtained], it serves to strengthen what we have been talking about; that these people are deliberately recruiting followers and promoting their actions, taking advantage of a weak law. We now need to move and strengthen the legal regime and make the punishment more stringent.”
However, organisers of the now controversial meeting are defiant. Jeff Ogwaro, the national coordinator of CSCHRCL, told The Observer yesterday that the NGOs had been meeting monthly for about six months. He, however, denied any wrongdoing.
“I am surprised that government does not know its own laws,” Ogwaro said. “We are promoting human rights, just like those promoting children’s rights… but we don’t have a curriculum that teaches people how to have [gay] sex. Lokodo needs to be educated. He is ignorant.”
List of NGOs facing ban
- Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law
- Refugee Law Project
- Rainbow and Diversity Organisation
- Angel Support Group
- Trans Equality Uganda
- Rainbow Foundation Mbarara
Uganda gay group sues US minister over anti-gay bill
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17387887
15 March 2012 Last updated at 19:09 GMT
A Ugandan gay rights group has filed a lawsuit against a US minister accusing him of involvement in a
campaign to persecute gay people in Uganda.
He told the BBC the case was based on "gross misrepresentations" and should not be actionable.
Sexual Minorities Uganda is seeking a judgement against Mr Lively and unspecified damages.
"We hope that he will be held accountable for what he did in Uganda," Frank Mugisha, head of the group, told the Associated Press news agency.
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed the complaint on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda in a federal court in Massachusetts, where Mr Lively is based.
'Political theatre'
To mark the legal action, about 70 protesters marched from the US district court in Springfield, Massachusetts on Wednesday.
Mr Lively was one of several US evangelicals who visited Uganda in 2009 shortly before a bill was drafted that made certain homosexual acts punishable by death.
That bill has since been amended with a life prison sentence instead of the death penalty, but gay groups in Uganda say they have faced increasing threats since its introduction.
Mr Lively, who leads Abiding Truth Ministries, said he never told the Ugandan legislature to implement the death penalty and has informed them he disapproved of the punishment.
He said he believed "in criminalisation in the same manner of criminalisation of marijuana and speeding on the highway".
"This is just political theatre," Mr Lively told the BBC, arguing that the case is a frivolous one based on highly edited comments that misrepresent him.
The complaint alleges Mr Lively warned Ugandans to fight against a "genocidal" and "paedophilic" gay movement, "which he likened to the Nazis and Rwandan murderers".
Sexual Minorities Uganda's complaint also alleges that Mr Lively's involvement in Uganda's anti-gay movement stretches back to 2002.
"He long ago set out a very specific and detailed methodology for stripping away the most basic human rights protections, to silence and ultimately disappear LGBT people," Pam Spees, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement.
"Unfortunately, he found willing accomplices and fertile ground in Uganda."
Some have argued that the anti-gay bill is part of an effort to distract Ugandans from government corruption.
Nigerian senate passes anti-gay bill, defying British aid threat
http://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-30/africa/world_africa_africa-gay-rights_1_gay-rights-british-aid-anti-gay-rhetoric?_s=PM:AFRICA
November
30, 2011|By Christian Purefoy and Faith Karimi, CNN
Homosexuality is illegal in most African countries, with
punishments ranging from fines to years in prison.
The bill by Africa's most populous nation calls for a 14-year sentence for anyone convicted of homosexuality. Anyone who aids or "abets" same-sex unions faces 10 years in prison, a provision that could target rights groups.
It goes to the nation's House of Representatives for a vote before President Goodluck Jonathan can sign it into law.
"It would place a wide range of people at risk of criminal sanctions, including human rights defenders and anyone else -- including friends, families and colleagues -- who stands up for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people in Nigeria," Amnesty International said in a statement.
The bill passed Tuesday comes nearly a month after British prime minister, David Cameron, threatened to withhold aid from nations violating gays rights, sparking outrage in Africa where leaders interpreted it as "colonial" display of power.
Homosexuality is illegal in most African countries based on remnants of sodomy laws introduced during the British colonial era and perpetuated by cultural beliefs.
Punishments across the continent range from fines to years in prison.
"This is something we raise continually and ... we're also saying that British aid should have more strings attached in terms of 'do you persecute people for their faith or their Christianity or do you persecute people for their sexuality?" Cameron said in a statement.
"We don't think that's acceptable. So look, this is an issue where we want movement, we're pushing for movement, we're prepared to put some money behind what we believe."
Soon after his remarks earlier this month, a flurry of African governments released defiant statements accusing him of undermining their sovereignty and culture.
Last week, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, known for his anti-gay rhetoric, called the prime minister "satanic" for demanding gay rights.
"Do not get tempted into that (homosexuality) madness. You are young people. If you go that direction, we will punish you severely," state media quoted him as saying. "It is condemned by nature. It is condemned by insects and that is why I have said they are worse than pigs and dogs."
Mugabe's comments were the latest in a series of strident remarks by African leaders.
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