German Human Rights Commissioner worried about Uganda anti-homosexuality bill

BERLIN, Germany, February 9, 2012/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- The Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy, Markus Löning, issued the following statement today (8 February) on the reopening of the debate in the Ugandan parliament on an anti-homosexuality bill:

“I am gravely concerned about the anti-homosexuality bill – which invokes the death penalty – being reintroduced in parliament. The discrimination and exclusion intended by the bill is unbearable and unacceptable.

I therefore call on Uganda's parliament to definitively renounce the bill. Furthermore, I appeal to the Ugandan Government to meet its international obligations concerning respect for human rights and the protection of minorities and to explicitly oppose the bill in parliament.”

Background:

The bill tightening up existing anti-homosexuality legislation was introduced into parliament in 2009 by an MP of Uganda's ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM). International pressure put an end to the debates in early 2011. The bill has now been reintroduced into the new parliament constituted in May 2011.