Landlords now leading abusers of LGBTQI+ persons in Uganda
New report shows fourfold increase in LGBTQI+ rights violations in Uganda
A new report has shown that landlords now rank as one of the biggest violators of LGBTQI+ rights in Uganda, overtaking state security operatives, indicating that recently passed Anti-Homosexuality Act has empowered landlords to abuse queer Ugandans.
According to the report, landlords were responsible for 425 cases of violations of LGBTQI+ people’s rights, followed by neighbours (269 cases) and the general public/mob actions (198 cases).
The report, “Eteeka Lyayita (The law was passed): Unwanted, Outlawed And Illegal: The Cry Of LGBTIQ+ Ugandans,” was published exactly one year after the enactment of the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Law (AHA), and covers the period between September 2023 and May 2024. The report comes from the Strategic Response Team Uganda, a consortium of five LGBT community organizations that actively documents and coordinates community responses for safe shelter, access to justice, and health across Uganda.
During that period, the AHA was legally enforced, with persons arbitrarily arrested and charged. That was also the period in which the LGBTQ+ community and human rights advocates challenged the AHA in the Constitutional Court of Uganda and the East African Court of Justice. The Constitutional Court upheld the AHA, having nullified just two sections and part of two other sections.
“It was during this period that Uganda’s legislature, Judiciary, Executive and Media became not just homophobes but a nuisance to both regional and international human rights instruments to which Uganda is party,” says a Kampala-based human rights lawyer who preferred anonymity.
Even before the law received presidential assent on 20 May 2023, suspected, perceived, and/or known LGBTQ+ persons, organisations and allies came under attack, following misleading campaigns and misinformation in the media with allegations of “promotion of homosexuality and recruitment of young persons into homosexuality” in spaces like schools.
The report has documented 1,031 cases which directly affected 1,043 LGBTQ+ persons, including organisations.
A comparison with the Jan-Aug 2023 period reveals that the cases between September 2023 and May 2024 increased by more than four times: 306 cases in Jan-Aug 2023, and 1,253 cases from Sep 2023-May 2024.
The report attributes this increase largely to the passing of the AHA and the court’s failure to completely annul the AHA. There is therefore, a direct link between the AHA and the leading violators.
The study shows that the increase in attacks by mobs and landlords was mainly due to the assertion that the AHA made it a duty of persons to report any LGBTQ+ persons. Landlords working in collaboration with local councils and mobs did not just report but put the law in their own hands by subjecting presumed or known LGBTQI+ persons to different kinds of violations including arrests, forced evictions, violent attacks and threats, loss of employment, extortion, exposure and outing, family rejection, and rape.
According to the report, these violations continued even after the Constitutional Court annulled the section requiring members of the public to report LGBTQI+ persons.
The report reveals that the majority of the persons who faced violations of rights identified as gay men (517 cases) followed by trans women (201 cases) and lesbians (151 cases).
Winnie Byanyima the UNAIDS Executive Director believes that such abuses are a direct result of draconian laws like AHA.
“Leaders fearful of their status and power are whipping up hatred toward the marginalized to divert attention from economic and political woes. They are pushing for draconian laws and enabling vigilantes to follow through on their verbal violence with physical violence,” she said in her recent commentary in commemoration of Pride Month.
Her analysis clearly fits the situation in Uganda where verbal and physical violence against LGBTQI+ persons is happening with impunity and, in many cases, with support from state operatives. The report mentions local council leaders and police as active participants in violating the rights of LGBTQI+ persons.
