[Viva] Fwd: UNAIDS urges the Government of Uganda to not enact harmful law that threatens public health

[Denise Wozniak]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: UNAIDS <communications at unaids.org>
Date: Wed, Mar 22, 2023 at 11:59 AM
Subject: UNAIDS urges the Government of Uganda to not enact harmful law
that threatens public health
To: Subscriber <dbecker106 at gmail.com>


UNAIDS has warned that, if the Bill is enacted into law, it will have
extremely damaging consequences for public health
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*PRESS STATEMENT*
*UNAIDS urges the Government of Uganda to not enact harmful law that
threatens public health *

*GENEVA/JOHANNESBURG, 22 March 2023 —  *Responding to the passing of the
Anti-Homosexuality Bill by the Ugandan Parliament, UNAIDS has warned that,
if the Bill is enacted into law, it will have extremely damaging
consequences for public health, by curtailing the human rights of people
living with HIV and some of the most vulnerable people of Uganda to access
life-saving services.

UNAIDS East and Southern Africa Director Anne Githuku-Shongwe said:

“If enacted, this law will undermine Uganda’s efforts to end AIDS by 2030,
by violating fundamental human rights including the right to health and the
very right to life.

It will drive communities away from life-saving services, and obstruct
health workers, including civil society groups, from providing HIV
prevention, testing and treatment.

The evidence is crystal clear: the institutionalization of discrimination
and stigma will further push vulnerable communities away from life-saving
health services. Research in sub-Saharan Africa shows that in countries
which criminalize homosexuality HIV prevalence is five times higher among
men who have sex with men than it is in countries without such laws.

By undermining public health, this law will be bad for everyone.

This law, if enacted, will hurt Ugandans. It will cost lives and it will
drive up new HIV infections. We urge Government to not enact this harmful
law.”

The law would impose a penalty of life imprisonment for homosexual acts and
the death penalty for so-called “aggravated offences”. It even includes a
duty to report acts of homosexuality, with failure to do so punishable by
up to 6 months in prison.

The harmful Bill stands in marked contrast to a positive wave of
decriminalization taking place in Africa and across the world, in which
harmful punitive colonial legislation is being removed in country after
country. Decriminalisation saves lives and benefits everyone.

Although the Anti-Homosexuality Bill has been passed by parliament, it is
not yet enacted as a law and can, in the interest of promoting public
health and equal rights of Ugandan citizens, be rejected by the President.
It is not too late for this Bill to be rejected and lives to be saved.
*UNAIDS*
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires
the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero
discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of
11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO,
UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national
partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Learn more at unaids.org
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