4 Apr. (EUROPA PRESS) -The Secretary of the US Department of State, Antony Blinken, has expressed his concern on Wednesday about the endorsement of the Ugandan Constitutional Court to the anti-LGBTI law, which was adopted in 2023 and provides for the death penalty for cases of "aggravated homosexuality", an ambiguous term that covers relationships with minors or disabled people, those carried out under duress or with an unconscious person.
"The United States remains deeply concerned about reports of human rights violations in Uganda, including those committed against the LGBTI community. The announcement that the Constitutional Court has eliminated some provisions of the Anti-Homosexuality Law is a small and insufficient step to safeguard human rights," he said in a statement.
In that sense, he explained that the rest of the law continues to present "serious threats" for Ugandans belonging to the LGTBI community and their supporters and that it poses a risk to public health, a restriction on civic spaces and damage to the country's international reputation, which "harms" efforts to increase foreign investment. "Uganda must respect the human dignity of all people and protect them equally under the law," Blinken added.
The President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, enacted the controversial law in May 2023, and although he assured that the authorities of the African country would not persecute anyone for their sexual orientation, human rights organizations and numerous governments of the international community condemned what they considered a drastic setback for the LGBTI community.
The promulgation of the rule has already led to a review of the funds by the World Bank, while the US government adopted sanctions against senior Ugandan officials.