United Nations, NGO Amnesty International react against Uganda anti-LGBTQ + Law

The United Nations and the NGO Amnesty International have described the anti-LGBTQ law which was passed by the Uganda parliament as appalling.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to reject the anti-homosexuality law.

Uganda's parliament has passed its anti-gay legislation which places tough sanctions on same-sex relationships in the country.

On Tuesday, the Speaker in Parliament ruled that the 'Ayes have it' after the house had its final vote on the bill despite its chaotic session, AFP news reports.

Even though homosexuality is already illegal in the country, the anti-gay legislation proposes that anyone in the conservative East African nation who engages in same-sex activity or who identifies publicly as LGBTQ could face up to 10 years in prison.

In a report by Africanews.com, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called on Museveni on Wednesday not to enact the law.

"The passage of this discriminatory text -probably the worst of its kind in the world-- is a deeply troubling development," he said in a statement.

"If signed into law by the president, (this law) will make lesbians, gays and bisexuals criminals in Uganda simply by existing (...). It could give carte blanche to the systematic violation of almost all their human rights," he added.

Amnesty's director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, in a statement said "this ambiguous, vaguely worded law criminalizes even those who promote "homosexuality".

YNA