Anti-LGBTQ+ bill allows for use of the death penalty

The president, Yoweri Museveni, has signed into law the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which allows the death penalty for homosexual acts.

The law imposes the death penalty or life imprisonment for certain same-sex acts, up to 20 years in prison for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”.

The bill, described by the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, as “shocking and discriminatory”, was passed by all but two of the 389 MPs on 21 March. Museveni had 30 days to sign the legislation into law, return it to parliament for revisions or veto it. He sent it back to MPs in April. The bill would have become law without the president’s assent if he had returned it a second time.