Uganda accused of ‘state bigotry’ and attacks on LGBTQ+ people

According to a recent report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Ugandan authorities have “unleashed abuse,” committing extensive discrimination and violence towards LGBTQ+ individuals in the two years following the implementation of the world’s strictest anti-gay laws.

Researchers from the rights group stated that the government’s policies in Uganda had fostered assaults and discrimination against individuals and organizations viewed as supportive of gay rights.

Public personalities in the East African country have indulged in aggressive homophobic statements and violations of human rights prior to and following the contentious legislation being passed in May 2023.

“Authorities have raided and suspended nongovernmental organisations, conducted arbitrary arrests and detentions, engaged in entrapment via social media and dating apps, and extorted money from LGBT people in exchange for releasing them from police custody,”

stated the writers of They’re Putting Our Lives at Risk: How Uganda’s Anti-LGBT Climate Fuels Abuse, which came out on Monday. It stated that the state had fostered a situation that permits “impunity for assaults” and “for sexual and other types of violence against LGBT individuals.”

In May 2023, Uganda’s authoritarian leader, Yoweri Museveni, enacted the bill despite global condemnation. It mandates the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” eliciting fierce criticism from human rights advocates. The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, labeled the law as “shocking and discriminatory.”

From August 2022 to April 2025, researchers conducted interviews with 59 individuals, which included families, rights organizations, activists, journalists, and parliament members. The organization contacted various government offices and officials to seek information, but received no replies.

Oryem Nyeko, a senior HRW researcher, said: “For the last two years, LGBT Ugandans have suffered a range of abuses because of the government’s wilful decision to legislate hate against them.

“The Ugandan authorities need to urgently improve this environment, which enables a wide range of human rights violations and puts countless Ugandans at serious risk of abuse,” he said.

The Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) reported last July that 667 of the cases handled by its legal aid network in the previous 14 months involved human rights violations affecting 850 LGBTQ+ people. These included evictions, violence and arrests.

Clare Byarugaba, a LGBTQ+ rights activist in the capital, Kampala, said: “The human cost of the draconian anti-homosexuality law is very high, and this new report by HRW provides further evidence of the consequences of Uganda’s state sponsored homophobia and transphobia.

“Continued enforcement legitimises discrimination, exclusion and violence. We need protection, not criminalisation,” she said, adding that the bill was unconstitutional and did not reflect the values of a democratic nation.

“We want to live in Uganda as productive citizens without the threat of criminalisation and violence at every waking moment,” she said. “Our human rights are inherent and have never been up for debate.”

Uganda’s track record on human rights keeps worsening during Museveni’s forty-year reign. HRW is urging the authorities to halt their crackdown and eliminate hate speech. In April of the previous year, Uganda’s constitutional court dismissed a petition to annul the bill, maintaining its most extreme and harmful clauses.

Nyeko said: “The state-sanctioned bigotry and discrimination that has only become more entrenched in Uganda over the past two years has no place in a society that upholds human rights and the rule of law.

“Uganda should end its assault on LGBT people and choose a future of dignity, equality and freedom for all those who live there,” he said.