• Press Release

Amnesty International Expresses Relief After Uganda Parliament Fails to Debate and Vote on Anti-Homosexuality Legislation

May 13, 2011

Contact: Suzanne Trimel, 212-633-4150, [email protected]

(New York) — Amnesty International expressed relief today that the Uganda Parliament failed to debate and vote on a draconian anti-homosexuality bill.

Ugandan and international rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have been campaigning for Parliament to reject the bill, which proposed life imprisonment for entering into a same-sex marriage.

The bill would have allowed the death penalty for homosexual acts in some cases. Parliament was dissolved on Friday without any new legislation being discussed.

“We are relieved that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was not passed into law today,” said Michelle Kagari, Amnesty International’s deputy director for Africa.

“This bill would have institutionalized the discrimination, including harassment and arbitrary arrests, that LGBT people in Uganda already face.”

New Members of Parliament will be sworn in next week and the bill could be reintroduced at that time.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.

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