{"id":10132,"date":"2021-05-11T17:58:28","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T17:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=10132"},"modified":"2021-05-11T15:35:42","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T15:35:42","slug":"museveni-hints-at-plan-not-to-sign-sexual-offences-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/museveni-hints-at-plan-not-to-sign-sexual-offences-act","title":{"rendered":"Museveni hints at plan not to sign Sexual Offences Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\">Uganda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>President Museveni has reportedly said he will not sign the newly-enacted Sexual Offences Act, 2019, into law, citing potential foreign policy implications, according to highly-placed sources.<\/p>\n<p>The President\u2019s thoughts, which come to light even before Parliament transmits the Act for his assent, follows high level discussions last week.Senior Ugandan diplomats involved in the process reportedly informed Mr Museveni that the legislation, which, among other things, criminalises homosexuality afresh and sets 10-year jail term for offenders, was uncalled for.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no local by-in of the law [Parliament did not consult the population], the President was not aware and there is no political dividend after he was re-elected [in January], making the new law an unnecessary burden for him,\u201d a source said.<\/p>\n<p>The shuttle diplomacy coordinated by one of Uganda\u2019s envoys to the United States reportedly followed inquiries by Washington about the renewed criminalisation of homosexuality, which US President Joe Biden\u2019s administration has highlighted among foreign policy priorities it will promote around the world.<\/p>\n<p>The Ugandan diplomat then conferred with Mr Museveni who reportedly told the diplomat to inform the American administration that he will not sign the legislation into law, prompting the US to ease gathering pressure and withhold a statement it was due to issue on the Bill.<\/p>\n<p>Ms Lindah Nabusayi, the senior presidential press secretary, on Sunday said: \u201cI can\u2019t confirm this development now, but let me cross-check for you.\u201dBy criminalising homosexuality, already a crime in the Penal Code Act, Members of the lapsing 10th Parliament have returned Uganda to the 2014 situation in which the country wrestled donor attacks when President Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act into law.<\/p>\n<p>The Constitutional Court weeks later struck down the law on a technicality; that it was passed without quorum. When President Museveni returned from an August 2014 visit to Washington DC for the US-Africa summit, he told Uganda lawmakers that intended to revive the quashed law to \u201cgo slow\u201d because the legislation had \u201cforeign policy implications\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The initial Sexual Offences Bill, 2019, sponsored by Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA), only imported offences of unnatural sex as provided in the Penal Code Act, but MPs while enacting the Bill on May 3, introduced explicit language in Clause 11 that banned anal sex and sex between the persons of same gender.<\/p>\n<p>Kumi District Woman MP Monica Amoding, who moved the original Bill in her capacity as UWOPA chairperson, told this newspaper that the legislated version contained gains and misses in amendments adopted in the \u201cwisdom of the House (Parliament)\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The new Act, among others, also criminalises and sets stiff penalties for sexual assault, indecent assault, cat-calling, indecent communication, sexual harassment, exploitation of detainees, sexual exploitation, unnatural offences, simple defilement, aggravated defilement, and incest.<\/p>\n<p>Uganda first criminalised homosexuality and imposed life imprisonment penalty for convicts in 2014 and Mr Museveni, while signing the anti-gay Act of Parliament into law, said Ugandan scientists had convinced him that homosexuality was an act of nurture, not nature.The law, however, strained Uganda\u2019s relations with donors and opened up the country to condemnation by rights groups before court annulled it.<\/p>\n<p><b>Background<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Uganda first criminalised homosexuality and imposed life imprisonment penalty for convicts in 2014. The law, however, kicked up diplomatic storm, straining Uganda\u2019s relations with donors and opened up the country to both scrutiny before court annulled it.<\/p>\n<p><b>editorial@ug.nationmedia.com<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. President Museveni has reportedly said he will not sign the newly-enacted Sexual Offences Act, 2019, into law, citing potential foreign policy implications, according to highly-placed sources. The President\u2019s thoughts, which come to light even before Parliament transmits the Act for his assent, follows high level discussions last week.Senior Ugandan diplomats involved in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-10132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Museveni hints at plan not to sign Sexual Offences Act - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Museveni has reportedly said he will not sign the newly-enacted Sexual Offences Act, 2019, into law, citing po ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/museveni-hints-at-plan-not-to-sign-sexual-offences-act\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Museveni hints at plan not to sign Sexual Offences Act\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Museveni has reportedly said he will not sign the newly-enacted Sexual Offences Act, 2019, into law, citing po ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/museveni-hints-at-plan-not-to-sign-sexual-offences-act\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-11T17:58:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/05\/img-609aa432ef2ef.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/museveni-hints-at-plan-not-to-sign-sexual-offences-act#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/museveni-hints-at-plan-not-to-sign-sexual-offences-act\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Museveni hints at plan not to sign Sexual Offences Act\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-11T17:58:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/museveni-hints-at-plan-not-to-sign-sexual-offences-act\"},\"wordCount\":568,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/museveni-hints-at-plan-not-to-sign-sexual-offences-act#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/05\/img-609aa432ef2ef.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/museveni-hints-at-plan-not-to-sign-sexual-offences-act#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/museveni-hints-at-plan-not-to-sign-sexual-offences-act\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/museveni-hints-at-plan-not-to-sign-sexual-offences-act\",\"name\":\"Museveni hints at plan not to sign Sexual Offences Act - 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