Homosexuella handlingar har varit olagliga i Uganda sedan kolonialmaktstiden. År 2009 lade en riksdagsledamot i Ugandas parlament fram ett lagförslag som bland annat skulle innebära att HBTQ-personer riskerade dödsstraff eller livstidsfängelse för homosexuella handlingar, samtidigt som ett förbud mot främjandet av homosexualitet skulle införas.
Vidare innebar förslaget att Uganda kunde begära utlämning av ugandiska medborgare som befinner sig utomlands och är misstänkt för att ha brutit mot lagen, antingen i Uganda eller i utlandet. Lagförslaget debatterades i parlamentet men gick inte till omröstning, förmodligen på grund av det omfattande internationella trycket.
I februari 2012 lades ett omarbetat lagförslag fram som utöver ovanstående skulle innebära att föräldrar blir skyldiga att fördöma homosexuella barn och lärare blir skyldiga att rapportera homosexuella elever till myndigheterna, med böter eller fängelsestraff som påföljd om detta inte görs.
I början av 2013 väntas att Ugandas parlament återigen ska debattera och rösta om lagförslaget.
Svenska missionsrådet och Sveriges kristna råd är djupt bekymrade över lagförslaget.
-Vi motsätter oss alla brott mot de mänskliga rättigheterna, oavsett vilken sexuell läggning personen som utsätts har. Att straffa människor på grund av sin sexuella läggning anser vi motsäger både mänskliga rättigheter, internationell rätt och den kristna tron, säger Karin Wiborn, generalsekreterare för Sveriges kristna råd.
-Vi vill visa solidaritet med människor som skulle drabbas om lagen började gälla. Lagförslaget bryter mot HBTQ-personers rättigheter och riskerar att slå sönder familjer och bidrar till ökad fattigdom. Detta försvårar också kampen mot hiv och aids, säger Eva Christina Nilsson, generalsekreterare för Svenska missionsrådet.
I ett brev till Ugandas president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, som undertecknas av SKR:s och SMR:s generalsekreterare, motsätter sig Sveriges kristna råd och Svenska missionsrådet det nya lagförslaget.
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Letter to the Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
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President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
Republic of Uganda
Kampala, Uganda
19th December 2012
Your Excellency,
Churches and church communities in Sweden that are members of the Christian Council of Sweden and the Swedish Mission Council have noted that legislation drastically affecting the lives of LGBTI people in Uganda has been proposed. We are given to understand that it will stigmatise people on the basis of their sexual orientation and impose severe penalties if they give expression to their love. These penalties could include both the death sentence and life imprisonment. We also understand that it would force parents to denounce homosexual children and teachers to report homosexual pupils, or face heavy fines or imprisonment.
We wish in this letter to give expression to our great concern at this proposal. If it does contain the measures indicated or any other measures that punish people on the grounds of sexual orientation, we suggest that this contradicts both basic human rights, principles of international law and the Christian faith. Moreover, we hereby express our solidarity with the people whose lives would be drastically affected if this law should be introduced.
We maintain that this proposal ignores scientifically based understandings of human sexuality. There is no evidence that the love of LGBTI people threatens the family. It is of course the responsibility of society to protect minors and other vulnerable people from abuse and force, whether sexual or otherwise, but there is no necessary connection between homosexuality and abuse. Evidence shows that such abuses are perpetrated by people of all orientations and is related to forces and factors which should not be oversimplified. The proposed legislation aims to protect and support family life, but it would be basically flawed, since it would cause fear, suspicion and disintegration, and threaten the livelihoods of families.
Above all, we maintain that all people are created and loved by God, and that God intends us to reflect that love in our relations with our fellow human beings. This is a conviction based on our Christian faith, but one which we believe is shared by people of other faiths and by those of good will regardless of faith. The implications of this basic fact were clearly proclaimed by Our Lord Jesus Christ, who said that we must love our neighbours as ourselves, that we should love even our enemies, and that we should do to others as we would that they do to us. The world needs measures that promote respect and understanding not hate and discrimination.
We believe that legislation of this sort would strengthen the mechanisms of alienation and marginalisation. It would harm a minority in Uganda that is already vulnerable to human rights abuses and needs support.
We appeal to your Excellency to do everything in your power to avert this type of legislation.
We pray to God to bless the people of Uganda and we wish you well.
On behalf of the Christian Council of Sweden and the Swedish Mission Council
Karin Wiborn
General Secretary, Christian council of Sweden
Eva Christina Nilsson
General Secretary, Swedish Mission Council
