Uganda urged to repeal anti-gay law to combat HIV
Anti-LGBT law has made it harder for queer Ugandas to access health services
Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) has urged the Ugandan authorities to repeal the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) 2023, if it is serious about protecting the gains Uganda has made in preventing and ending HIV/AIDS over the past decades.
In a press statement issued on World AIDS Day 2025, HRAPF noted that since the Anti-Homosexuality Act came into force with its criminalisation of the ‘promotion of homosexuality,’ community drop-in centres, clinics, crisis shelters and safe spaces for key populations have struggled to operate under threats of raids, closure and arrest.
The recent withdrawal and reduction of funding following shifts in US funding priorities have made the situation worse, threatening a total shut down of these services in Uganda.
HRAPF says that men who have sex with men, transgender persons and sex workers, have always generally relied on community-led clinics and drop-in centres to access essential HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care services in safe, judgment-free and discrimination-free environments. Yet these structures have been under siege for more than two years, negatively impacting access to these critical services.
Over the past two years, HRAPF has documented increased fear and reduced health-seeking behavior among key populations due to AHA.
The threat of organisational closures under both the AHA 2023 for ‘promotion of homosexuality’ and the NGO Act for doing acts ‘prejudicial to the interests and the dignity of the people of Uganda’ has sharply reduced community outreach initiatives aimed at addressing violence, and access to essential health services.
HRAPF said that these realities contradict Uganda’s commitments under the Constitution, the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights and other international treaties to which Uganda is a party. They also undermine efforts to reduce new HIV infections, an outcome already reflected in recent Ministry of Health statistics showing rising infection and prevalence rates across the country.
Justine Balya, a lawyer and researcher at HRAPF, says that considerable investment that gone into ensuring that health-care facilities are widespread and that people can test for HIV or access antiretroviral therapy (ART) for free, the LGBTQI+ community still encounters roadblocks and AHA just worsened the situation.
“For the average Ugandan, accessing these services is relatively straightforward—which is commendable. But for LGBT people, it’s not just a matter of policy or availability of services. It’s about safety, legality, and dignity. Access is complicated by criminalisation. As long as same-sex relationships are considered criminal under Ugandan law, LGBT individuals are essentially treated as felons— walking targets for arrest and abuse,” Balya says in an interview in Bombastic Magazine.
“You can’t separate health access from human rights, especially when people are arrested just for looking ‘too gay’ or for wearing a rainbow armband. This hostile legal environment undermines al the gains we’ve made in HIV service delivery. How can we talk about access when people fear walking into a clinic because of how they look or who they love? When even possessing condoms or lubricants becomes ‘evidence’ of criminality?”
Balya is convinced that repealing AHA will go a long way in turning things around.
“We’ve seen it happen before. When the original Anti-Homosexuality Act was passed in 2014, public attitudes turned sharply against LGBT people. But we also saw something else: when that law was annulled, attitudes began to soften again. Laws shape perceptions, and if repealed, this one could do more than just unlock access—it could restore humanity,” she says.
HRAPF says that this year’s World AIDS Day commemoration is a reminder that the fight against HIV is not only a public health challenge but also a human rights imperative. This year’s theme of “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response” is timely as Uganda and the global community stands at a critical crossroads in the effort to end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
The organization says significant steps must still be undertaken by the government of Uganda to avert the current crisis and contribute meaningfully to the global fight against AIDS, including:
- Legal reforms that decriminalise identity and expression, including decriminalising sex work and repealing the Anti-Homosexuality Act, in order to curb impunity in violence and rights violations targeting KPs.
- Increasing Uganda’s health budget to 15% of the national budget, in line with the Abuja declaration, as a matter of urgency and dedicate a portion of this increase to providing essential HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care services, with a special focus on key populations, in order to remain on track towards achieving the 95-95-95 targets.
- Strengthening legal protection for key populations who experience violence and other human rights violations, including reprimanding state institutions and officials complicit in these violations, and ensuring effective and timely redress for victims of violence.
HRAPF says that reducing the vulnerability of key populations to violence and human rights violations would go a long way towards reducing their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS and ultimately reducing the national HIV/AIDS prevalence.
