The Constitutional Court of Uganda declined to nullify, or even grant a permanent injunction against the enforcement of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023. This was even if it found that some sections of the law violated the right to health, and that the law was “inconsistent with right to health, privacy and freedom of religion”.
Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, signed the law in May 2023. Considered as one of the harshest anti-LGBTQIA laws in the world, it imposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”.
With members of the LGBTQIA community among the key affected populations in HIV infections, HIV-centric organizations are worried about the impact of the anti-LGBTQIA law on HIV-related efforts.
According to Anne Githuku-Shongwe, UNAIDS regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa, “evidence shows that criminalizing populations most at risk of HIV, such as the LGBTQ+ communities, obstructs access to life-saving health and HIV services, which undermines public health and the overall HIV response in the country.”
She added that to achieve the goal of ending the AIDS pandemic by 2030, “it is vital to ensure that everyone has equal access to health services without fear.”
Meanwhile, Sharon Lewin, president of the International AIDS Society, stated that “the court had the opportunity to set matters right, but it has failed to follow the science and heed evidence. The ruling is completely at odds with Uganda’s stated commitment to ending HIV as a threat to public health by 2030. The consequences for the HIV response, not just in Uganda, but in other African countries grappling with anti-gay sentiment, are severe.”
Even before the court’s decision, since the Ugandan anti-LGBTQIA law was passed in 2003, the number of people accessing centers providing HIV prevention and treatment services to key populations (such as men who have sex with men) dropped from an average of 40 per week to two.
