{"id":46744,"date":"2023-03-23T10:06:14","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T10:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law"},"modified":"2023-03-23T10:41:21","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T10:41:21","slug":"basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law","title":{"rendered":"Basalirwa, rights lawyer face off over new law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. <\/strong><\/span>Bugiri Municipality MP Asuman Basalirwa has faced off with human rights lawyer Adrian Jjuuko over the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023, which was passed by Parliament on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

This was during the Anti-Homosexuality Bill dialogue under the theme \u201cAnti-Homosexuality Bill: Protecting the public or oppressing the minorities?\u201d, which was hosted by Makerere University School of Law yesterday.<\/p>\n

In his remarks, Mr Basalirwa defended all the provisions of the Bill which now awaits the President\u2019s signature to become law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Bill is in response to a public outcry, my fellow MPs were telling me we have a serious problem. I have been in schools, and interacted with parents. There was a serious problem so this Bill is timely,\u201d he said as he dared activists to challenge it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a human rights activist and a human rights lawyer but I have never seen a law that promotes sexual orientation. Uganda is signatory to different international human rights instruments but I have not seen any of them that promotes sexual orientation. I beg to be educated if there is one,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Bill criminalises homosexuality, with offenders receiving a death penalty for aggravated homosexuality and more than 10 years imprisonment for same-sex relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would not have any problem with these people if they were \u2018eating their things\u2019 in silence but recruiting our children and financing? No. We could not just look on and see our children being lured into such acts,\u201d Mr Basalirwa said.<\/p>\n

However, Dr Jjuuko, also the executive director of Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HURAPF), described the Bill as the greatest enemy of humanity since time immemorial, and that whatever took place in Parliament on Tuesday night was a mockery of human rights.<\/p>\n

He said it was insane for Parliament to gather and \u201cexpress mockery\u201d towards the LGBTQ+ (an acronym used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) community through what he described as an unconstitutional Bill.<\/p>\n

He, for example, cited the 2022 Annual Police Crime Report, where more than 8,000 cases of defilement were reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey claimed that they are protecting our children but the Bill won\u2019t protect the children because the biggest problems we have are men who rape young children compared to homosexuality. People are forgetting which laws they need. This law is aimed at fighting citizens because it infringes on people\u2019s privacy, and its implementation alone is hard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cArticle 20 of the Constitution provides that human rights are equal. Homosexuals are just like any other people. Penalising them means direct discrimination,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In response, Mr Basalirwa said homosexuals enjoy rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey enjoy voting rights, they go to schools, access our services so it is a lie to say that homosexuals don\u2019t enjoy rights here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nothing new in the Bill <\/b><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Ms Mariam Wangadya, the executive director of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), said the Bill has nothing new.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the contents of that Bill, it is not any different from the laws we already have in place. It does not introduce anything fundamentally different. Whatever it seeks to cure is already provided for in the existing laws,\u201d she said in an interview with this publication yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Constitution, under Article 31 (2), already speaks about rights of a family and it says \u2018marriage between person of the same-sex is prohibited.\u2019Anybody who has never questioned Article 31 has no right to criticise the Bill which was unanimously passed by Parliament,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Uganda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Uganda. Bugiri Municipality MP Asuman Basalirwa has faced off with human rights lawyer Adrian Jjuuko over the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023, which was passed by Parliament on Tuesday. This was during the Anti-Homosexuality Bill dialogue under the theme \u201cAnti-Homosexuality Bill: Protecting the public or oppressing the minorities?\u201d, which was hosted by Makerere University School […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":46742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-46744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"\nBasalirwa, rights lawyer face off over new law - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bugiri Municipality MP Asuman Basalirwa has faced off with human rights lawyer Adrian Jjuuko over the Anti-Homosexuality ...\" \/>\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\/basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Basalirwa, rights lawyer face off over new law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bugiri Municipality MP Asuman Basalirwa has faced off with human rights lawyer Adrian Jjuuko over the Anti-Homosexuality ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law\" \/>\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=\"2023-03-23T10:06:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-23T10:41:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1679549781.50.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\/basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Basalirwa, rights lawyer face off over new law\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-23T10:06:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-23T10:41:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law\"},\"wordCount\":593,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2023\/03\/postQueueImg_1679549781.50.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/basalirwa-rights-lawyer-face-off-over-new-law\",\"name\":\"Basalirwa, rights lawyer face off over new law - 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