Produced by:
Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law
(CSCHRCL)
Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF)
Rainbow Health Foundation (RHF)
Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG)
Support Initiative for Persons with Congenital Disorders (SIPD)
Introduction
The impetus behind the Uganda Report on Violations Based on Sex Determination, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation is the conviction that no violation of rights or dignity based upon an individual’s actual or perceived sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation should go undocumented or unacknowledged1
.
The collective experiences of violations of LGBTI Ugandans that form the basis of this report will be used to educate the public, religious leaders, civil society, and the international community, as well as to inform policies and policy makers in Uganda of the pervasiveness and the consequences of discrimination faced by LGBTI Ugandans.
Another driving force behind the publication of this report is the need to respond to a series of false, misleading, or unsubstantiated reports of violations related to sex determination, gender identity, or sexual orientation that have surfaced and circulated in Uganda in recent years. The possible consequences of false or shoddy reporting on rights violations are a serious concern in that they run the risk of undermining the credibility of LGBTI rights organisations as well as that of the victims themselves. By setting stringent evidentiary standards, and by erring on the side of caution when considering cases for inclusion in this report, the research team has been able to demonstrate conclusively that human rights violations against sexual minority groups are in fact taking place in Uganda.
The violation of the rights of persons based on their sex determination, gender identity, and/or sexual orientation can lead to spiritual and emotional shame and embarrassment. Self-worth, familial love and support, and societal respect are lost as individuals are harassed, beaten, thrown out of their homes, forced to endure mob justice, fired from their places of employment, and abandoned by family and friends.This report challenges the pervasive impunity surrounding violations based on sex determination, gender identity, and sexual orientation and provides verified evidence of violations experienced by LGBTI Ugandans and non-LGBTI Ugandans alike due to prejudice, a lack of knowledge or understanding, and/or discrimination.
LGBTI organisations and some mainstream human rights organisations in Uganda have long striven to defend the rights of the LGBTI community, including by way of representing the lived experiences of victims of abuse, but not enough of this work has been conducted in the context of rigorous processes of evidence collection, documentation, and verification. This report seeks to fill that void, but it does not pretend to offer a comprehensive list of all the cases of violations occurring in Uganda on the basis of sex determination, gender identity, or sexual orientation; rather the authors of this report offer initial and important tools for readers to begin to understand—through the presentation of verified evidence over time—the pervasiveness, nature, pattern, and extent of violations of LGBTI
rights in Uganda.
Read the entire report here
Source – hrapf.org
