One of the world’s most punitive and bitterly opposed anti-gay laws, Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which was signed by President Yoweri Mosevini in February, was annulled by Uganda’s Constitutional Court today. The court found that the speaker of parliament had acted illegally in rushing the bill through despite a lack of quorum.
The bill had increased the penalty for same-sex acts (which were already illegal) – including mere sexual touching – from seven years to life imprisonment, criminalised lesbianism for the first time, made “promoting homosexuality” punishable by up to seven years in jail and even made it a criminal offence for any person in authority who failed to report gays or lesbians to the police within 24 hours. A clause that included the death penalty for some offences was, however, dropped.
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