Dödstraff för homosexuella måste förkastas

Ugandas parlament diskuterar att införa dödstraff för homosexualitet. Lagförslaget innehåller dessutom ett förslag att en medborgare måste polisanmäla en person som är homosexuell. Förslaget skulle också innebära ett förbud för att verka för homo- och bisexuellas mänskliga rättigheter.

David Bahati, lagförslagets upphovsman, påstår att dödstraffet är borttaget från lagförslaget.

2009 lades ett liknande förslag men mötte stora internationella protester. Då innebar det att homosexuella med hiv skulle straffas med döden.

I Europaparlamentet har man nu skrivit ett formellt protestbrev som vädjar till Ugandas styrande att tänka om. Cecilia har skrivit under detta brev tillsammans med en rad andra parlamentariker. Här är brevet i sin helhet:

Members of the European Parliament URGENT OPEN LETTER
Rt. Hon. Edward Ssekandi Kiwanuka
Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament
326 Members of the Ugandan Parliament
Concerns: Do not adopt the Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Reference: 20110511/BS
Strasbourg, 11th May 2011

Honourable Speaker,
Honourable Members of the Parliament of Uganda,
The world has started reacting to the imminent examination of Mr Bahati’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, and possibly its adoption before the end of this legislature. If the Bill is not voted upon this week, we understand it may be adopted during Parliament’s next session.

We call on you not to adopt this inhumane Bill not as Europeans, not as aid donors,
not as a ‘global moral police’, but as fellow law-makers and fellow human beings.
We share your values of human dignity, liberty, peace, and freedom from
oppression; and the Anti-Homosexuality Bill goes fully against these values.

Concerns were raised that homosexuality is un-African; yet Africa is not united
against homosexuality. While revising its Penal Code a year ago, Rwanda refused to
criminalise homosexuality, and made a powerful statement at the United Nations in
December 2010 against the persecution of all minorities, including lesbians and gays.
Is Rwanda un-African? South Africa enshrined non-discrimination on grounds of
sexual orientation in its constitution, and allows same-sex couples to marry. Is
South Africa un-African? Gabon, the Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Cape
Verde, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, the Seychelles, São Tomé e Principe, Mauritius and
South Africa recently UN made statements against the criminalisation of
homosexuality. Are these countries un-African?

We are acutely aware of other, none the less grave, ongoing human rights violations
in Uganda. We have learnt of authorities tear-gassing marchers en masse during the
29 April demonstrations; opposition figures being intimidated, imprisoned, or
intentionally blinded in a shocking display of inhumanity by national authorities;
and national authorities increasingly oppressing the people of Uganda through
physical repression, intimidation, or imprisonment.

We are fully aware that the last-minute examination of this Bill is an excellent way of diverting your attention, and with it the attention of the Ugandan people, from these serious concerns.

Our House, elected by 500 million citizens, has formally called on Uganda not to
adopt the Anti-Homosexuality Bill on two occasions1. We are determined that the
adoption of any legislation further criminalising consensual sex between adults
(including the adoption of this Bill, whether in its current or in any modified form)
will have a severe negative impact on our bilateral relations, in both its aid and its diplomatic dimensions.

We call on you to refrain from further criminalising homosexuality. The people of
Uganda deserve that your attention be fully devoted to more pressing concerns,
including corruption-free governance, basic commodity prices brought under
control, freedom of speech and assembly, and decent living conditions.

Do not adopt this Bill.

DN, Kobra, Svd, AB, Expressen, Gp, Helsinborgs Dagblad, Borås Tidning.

Uppdatering:

Det här kom på majlen i fredags och bekräftar tidigare rykten att förslaget har i bästa fall lagts ned för gått eller åtminstone skjutits på till nästa session:Uganda parliament shelves anti-gay bill
(AFP) – 3 hours ago

KAMPALA — Uganda's parliament adjourned on Friday, effectively shelving an anti-gay bill introducing the death penalty for some homosexual acts, officials and activists said."I am adjourning this house ....," speaker Edward Ssekandi told parliament.

Lawmakers and gay rights activists said that meant the bill had been effectively killed off for this parliament as Friday was the last day for parliamentary debates.

The bill has drawn widespread condemnation, notably from the United States, which has qualified it as "odious"

David Bahati, the lawmaker behind the anti-gay bill, said that as the cabinet was dissolved following the inauguration of President Yoweri Museveni for a fourth term on Thursday no bills could be passed.

"Right now I would say that I am almost sure that the bill is not coming," Frank Mugisha, executive director of the rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda said.

Ssekandi said he reserved the right to reconvene parliament in case of an emergency, but another rights group, Avaaz, welcomed the news of the decision to "drop" the legislation from parliamentary discussions