The Tanzania-based East African Court has refused to take a stand on LGBTI rights, rejecting a challenge to the Ugandan Anti- Homosexuality Act of 2014.
The gay-friendly Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) of Uganda had filed suit in hopes of a court judgment that such anti-gay laws are unacceptable throughout East Africa.
These claimed that Uganda’s Constitutional Court overturned the law on Aug. 1 on procedural grounds— the lack of a quorum in Parliament — but did not address claims that the law violated Ugandan constitutional guarantees of human rights.
But on Sept. 27 the court declined to consider the case, noting that the Anti-Homosexuality Act had been overturned on a technicality by Uganda’s Constitutional Court in August 2014.
HRAPF and the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CSCHRCL), a coalition of 50 organizations opposed to the Anti-Homosexuality Act, pursued the case after the law was overturned, stating, “There are real chances of an amended Anti-Homosexuality Bill being brought to Uganda’s Parliament as well as to other parliaments in the region (most notably Kenya and Tanzania); if successful, the [case] would make clear to law makers that such a Bill would contravene the East African treaty.”
Despite the defeat, HRAPF pointed out positive results from the lawsuit:
“HRAPF is proud of its role in this case, as this is the first time that an international human rights tribunal in Africa has heard a case concerning violations against LGBTI,” HRAPF stated. “The case has also brought together Ugandan, East African and African activists to take their destiny in their hands and challenge laws that threaten the rights of LGBTI persons even at the intentional level.”
HRAPF provides legal assistance to LGBTI defendants in Uganda under the umbrella of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CSCHRCL), a coalition of 50 organizations opposed to the Anti-Homosexuality Act.
The judgment can be accessed at http://hrapf.org/?mdocs-file=9243&mdocs-url=false
by Colin Stewart and Male Marvin.
