Uganda’s Constitutional Court has annulled tough
anti-gay legislation signed into law in February.
It ruled that the bill was passed by MPs in December
without the requisite quorum and was therefore
illegal.
Homosexual acts were already illegal, but the new
law allowed for life imprisonment for “aggravated
homosexuality” and banned the “promotion of
homosexuality”.
Several donors have cut aid to Uganda since the law
was adopted.
Uganda is a deeply conservative society where many
people oppose gay rights and the sentence for
homosexual acts has always been life imprisonment.
Earlier drafts of the anti-homosexuality act made it a
crime not to report gay people – which would have
made it impossible to live as openly gay – but this
clause was removed.
However the legislation that was passed in
parliament was “null and void”, the presiding judge
at the Constitutional Court said, as not enough
lawmakers had been present to vote on the bill, the
AFP news agency reports.
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