Sandra Ntebi, who runs a hotline and helps Uganda’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community find alternative, safe accommodation, pictured here at the 2013 Gay Pride parade. Credit: Amy Fallon/IPS

By Amy Fallon
KAMPALA, Apr 23 2014 (IPS)

As she sits in a Kampala hotel holding a mobile phone that rings frequently, Sandra Ntebi tells IPS: “I’m really exhausted. I don’t know where to start. We have many cases pending.” Ntebi manages a hotline and is helping Uganda’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community find alternative, safe accommodation after they have faced harassment.

“Right now, some people have been thrown out of their homes, some are in jail. Every day there are cases.”

It’s nearly 4.30pm on Tuesday, Apr. 22, just over two months since Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed a draconian anti-gay bill that further criminalises homosexuality in this East African nation.Many activists had fled Uganda to seek asylum in different countries, while most LGBTI organisations were closed “due to fear”.

So far today Ntebi has received calls relating to four new cases concerning LGBTI people or those perceived to be LGBTI that include incidents of evictions by landlords, police arrests and mob attacks.

In total she and a colleague have received reports of about 130 different cases across the country since Museveni inked his signature on the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014 in late February.

The law prescribes life imprisonment for some homosexual acts and also criminalises the “promotion of homosexuality”, among other measures.

“The situation is tense. Right now this act is promoting violence,” says Ntebi.

“I get the reports since I have the hotline. We sit down later with the details then categorise them into evictions, arrests and assaults.”

Today her co-worker has received a call about a new incident in Hoima, western Uganda. Among the cases Ntebi is dealing with is a fresh attack on Brenda, an HIV positive, transgender sex worker in her late 30s who lives just outside the capital, Kampala.

In March Brenda was “paraded” before local media, outed as a transsexual, beaten, undressed and arrested.

“We bailed her out, she went back to her house in the village and she couldn’t even leave because people were out every day waiting for her,” says Ntebi. “They were throwing stones.”

Brenda went to stay with a friend based on advice from the LGBTI hotline. Then on Thursday, Apr. 17, she was beaten again, taken to hospital and is now holed up in a hotel.

“We’re trying to secure a house for her to rent,” says Ntebi, who on Wednesday went to help Brenda.

Around Mar. 19, the same time that Brenda was first attacked, three Ugandan men who were perceived to be gay were assaulted and admitted to the Mulago Hospital in Kampala. A few weeks later, Ntebi says, the team were alerted to a possible suicide of an LGBTI person by an embassy.

On Apr. 3 crime intelligence officers raided the Makerere University Walter Reed Project clinic, a non-profit collaboration between Makerere University in Kampala and the U.S. Military HIV Research Programme. Police claimed the project, one of the few in Kampala willing to offer services to LGBTI people with AIDS, was “carrying out recruitment and training of young males in unnatural sex acts.”

Many activists and other members of the gay community are now in hiding, says Ntebi, who is wearing a black vest from a 2006 campaign run by Sexual Minorities Uganda (SM-UG), an NGO and the umbrella for all homosexual organisations in Uganda. The words “Leave me in peace” are embroidered on the back.

Ntebi says many activists had fled Uganda to seek asylum in different countries, while most LGBTI organisations were closed “due to fear”.

Ntebi now only goes to work at her office when it’s absolutely essential.

Beyondy is the nickname for a 23-year-old fashion designer who is in hiding.

He used to spend his days sewing a dress for a client or mastering routines for upcoming events, like the second Gay Pride parade in 2013.

Since the bill was signed he has moved to a tiny one-bedroom shack, tucked away at the back of a slum in a lively Kampala suburb. Beyondy now spends his days mostly indoors watching music videos by Beyoncé, Pink and Rita Ora, only going outside when he has to.

“I like Rita’s style – the blonde hair, her red lipstick,” cooes Beyondy, wearing a T-shirt and board shorts showing off his muscular build, when IPS met him recently.

“I wanted to be a performer, for people to see my talent and discover me. But right now I think it’s impossible. Right now it’s all about survival, saving your life and being quiet, being underground all the time.”

In the past Beyondy was attacked “a lot”, and fears he’ll be targeted again now that the anti-gay act is in force.

“You know someone was saying recently, ‘if we had a choice between forgiving a rapist and a gay person, we’d rather choose a rapist,’” he says.

Activists are hoping a petition filed in March challenging the act will come up in the country’s constitutional court early next month.

According to the Ugandan newspaper The Observer, the government has filed a defence, claiming the act does not contravene the right to equality and freedom from cruel, inhumane and degrading punishment guaranteed under the country’s constitution. The government wants the petition dismissed.

But even if the law is overturned Beyondy says it will take much more than a court ruling to change social attitudes towards homosexuality in Uganda.

In the current climate of homophobia, which activists stress has been “imported” to Uganda via western evangelists, virtually everyone is aware they can use another person’s sexuality to exact revenge.

“It’s in people’s minds and even if it’s overturned they’ll still think about it.”

But he’s adamant he will remain in Uganda to “rebuild both personally and professionally”.

Daniel Kisekka (l), aka Survivor and Sharon Bwogi (r), aka Lady Slyke, are presenters on NewzBeat, a Ugandan news programme that raps the news. Credit: Amy Fallon/IPS

By Amy Fallon
KAMPALA, Mar 18 2014 (IPS)

“People in Ukraine took over power.

“Celebrated a few days, then the party went sour…” raps Sharon Bwogi, aka Lady Slyke, on NewzBeat, a weekend show that airs on Uganda’s channel NTV in both English and the local language Luganda. 

It might sound strange — hearing a news item on the political situation in Ukraine being rapped. But a new show in this East African nation, where half of its 36.4 million people are below the age of 15 and media censorship restricts the information people receive, hopes to grab the audience’s attention through “rhyme and reason”.

NewzBeat airs on Uganda’s free-to air channel NTV and is recorded in an independent studio in a suburb outside the country’s capital, Kampala. The team records one segment between four and five minutes – which takes about half an hour to film using two cameras, a green screen and a few other pieces of equipment – every week.

Each episode includes a mix of four or five international and local stories and includes a human interest, sport and entertainment piece.

Bwogi co-hosts hosts NewzBeat with Daniel Kisekka, aka Survivor, and the show also features 13-year-old anchor MC Loy. She is still in school but acts as the show’s “special correspondent”, making her one of, if not the youngest, “rapping journalist”.

She recently filed a piece on female boxers in Kampala’s Katanga slum for International Women’s Day. The programme, “borrowed” from hip-hop mad Senegal in West Africa, has only been on air for two weeks in Uganda.

“Right now it’s a mixed bag. Obviously the hip-hop fans are crazy about it but there are people who don’t understand it because hip-hop is not big here, it’s just getting there,” Kisekka, a hip-hop veteran who’s been rapping since 1988, tells IPS.

“[But] it encompasses so many things. It’s informative, it’s entertaining, it’s educational.”

He claims most youth aged under 30 are not interested in news and current affairs.

“It has been like that for such a long time,” says Kisekka. “But hip-hop is very popular with them. When we do a hip-hop show they say ‘I didn’t know this happened’. It’s only because we put it in the language they understand.”

Arnold Ntume, 23, stumbled across NewzBeat while channel surfing and is now a regular viewer.

“I was like ‘oh what’s this?’” the videographer tells IPS.

“It’s a different idea in Uganda. I learn more. And there’s some news that we don’t get on the other stations, mostly stories about our real lives.”

Last May, two privately-owned newspapers and radio stations were shut down by police for 11 days after reporting on a letter, allegedly written by an army general, that claimed that President Yoweri Museveni was grooming his son to succeed him.

According to the Press Freedom Index Report 2013, released by the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda earlier this month, space for reporters to operate freely in the country has continued to shrink.

Senior researcher at Human Rights Watch’s Africa division Maria Burnett tells IPS that over the years the organisation has documented and raised concerns about the “ways in which the Ugandan government limits free expression under the dubious guise of keeping public order and security.

“We have documented intimidation and harassment of journalists and station managers, especially those who are critical of the government, present opposing political views, or expose state wrongdoing, such as corruption or failure to investigate crimes outside Kampala.

“Uganda’s media regulatory system has shown clear partisan tendencies on several occasions. This is all very troubling because the bedrock of free speech is the right to criticise those in powerful positions,” Burnett says.

NewzBeat is upfront about not being objective but also stresses, speaking in rap terms, “the street party is the only party we affiliate ourselves with.”

Kisekka says the show aims to cover issues that aren’t predominantly given air time on other stations.

“There are some things that are never covered [in Uganda], like corruption. There are some topics that are off limit but we have to cover them,” he says.

Uganda has been generating international headlines of late, after Museveni signed a draconian anti-gay law and another bill which supposedly criminalised women wearing miniskirts and led to attacks on females across the country.

NewzBeat delved into both issues.

“We talked a little about it [the anti-gay law]. We don’t want to overdo it because we know how people feel about this thing,” says Bwogi.

Other items that have been covered include Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s 90^th birthday, the trouble in Central African Republic and South Sudan, the Sochi Winter Olympics and climate change.

Once the team decides on the editorial lineup, the creative process starts.

“I love it because I’m doing rhyme but I’m telling a story,” Bwogi, who started rapping in 1999, teaches poetry and song writing and is a fashion designer, tells IPS.

“It was what we were already doing but it was just a matter of getting different topics from different countries.”

She says although the news is delivered in hip-hop the audience can still understand it.

“We don’t do it so fast like it’s a race,” says Bwogi.

“People like it, they say it’s something they’ve never seen it before. Some are just getting into it.”

Kisekka says writing the material is often difficult.

“You have to obey the rules of hip-hop. The material has to remain the same. You can’t change the news,” he says.

However, Kisekka says, “I think the process [of writing the script] is better than the end finished product.”

Kisekka says the team hopes to increase its human interest coverage in the future.

“We expect to get sponsors and get more reporters and then expand it to beyond four [minutes], so we can have people who go to northern Uganda [and other places] and get the stories from the people,” he says.

Fox Odoi, a ruling party MP, is one of the petitioners challenging Uganda’s draconian anti-gay law. He is pictured here on Tuesday Mar. 11 just as the petition was filed with Constitutional Court. Credit: Amy Fallon/IPS

By Amy Fallon
KAMPALA, Mar 13 2014 (IPS)

Human rights campaigners who filed a recent legal petition against Uganda’s draconian anti-gay law believe that they have a compelling case for its nullification. 

“Judges are human beings. But we are pretty sure we have made a compelling case for the nullification of the law and the judges will exercise their judicial minds to the law as presented before them [rather than pay attention to] public sentiments,” Secretary of the Uganda Law Society, Nicholas Opiyo, told IPS.“Personally I do not agree that we’re going to lose in the Constitutional Court and the Court of Appeal… We have a good case.” -- Fox Odoi, a ruling party MP and former legal advisor to Museveni

On Tuesday, Mar. 11, a coalition of campaigners filed a petition with Uganda’s Constitutional Court in Kampala in response to the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014. President Yoweri Museveni signed the bill into law on Feb. 24.

The law strengthens penalties for homosexual acts, prescribing life imprisonment for “aggravated homosexuality” and criminalising the “promotion” of homosexuality. The team is seeking an injunction against the enforcement of the law.

Opiyo, who helped draft the petition, said the legal challenge “raises important constitutional and legal issues that the court must resolve satisfactorily.”

The petition was filed under the auspices of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CSCHRCL), a coalition of 50 indigenous civil society organisations advocating for non-discrimination.

It argues, among other things, that the anti-gay law “violates Ugandans’ constitutionally guaranteed right to: privacy, to be free from discrimination, dignity, to be free from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment…”

The petitioners are also seeking a permanent injunction against media houses or any other organisations from publishing pictures, names, addresses or other details of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and intersex (LGBTI) or suspected LGBTI persons.

On Feb. 25, just one day after Museveni signed the anti-gay law, Ugandan tabloid Red Pepper published a list of what it said were “Uganda’s 200 top homos”. A string of other sensational headlines in other editions of Red Pepper, and another tabloid Hello, ensued.

Geoffrey Ogwaro of CSCHRCL was named in a Mar. 1 issue of Red Pepper, which carried the front page headline “Ugandan homos form cabinet”. His photo was featured on page two.

Although the activist’s immediate family knowns that he is gay, he said his mum was still “heartbroken” after being shown the paper.

“She’s never really come to terms with it and when it became public it was really embarrassing for her,” Ogwaro said.

“She’s cooled down now but it was a bit of a shock to her.”

Opiyo said his “conservative guess” was that it could take “about six months” to come up. But he said that even then the public discourse surrounding the law, which is popular with most Ugandans, may “weigh on the minds of the judges.”

“We are under no illusion that this petition is the most popular petition. We know too well that the general public may be adverse to our petition and will seek to vilify the petitioners and their lawyers,” Opiyo said.

Among the petitioners is Fox Odoi, a ruling party MP and former legal advisor to Museveni who is the only legislator to speak out publicly against the law.

“I believe it’s irrational, it has no basis, it offends every human right that you can think about, it offends our constitution. It offends our treaty obligations of Uganda,” Odoi told IPS about the anti-gay law.

“As a citizen, as a legislator, as a human rights lawyer, I owe it to the people of Uganda to stand up and challenge it. Of course there’s a big political risk, this society is very homophobic and they’ll brand you all manner of names just because you stood up to speak for the minority. But in life you take a risk even waking up in your bed every day.”

“Personally I do not agree that we’re going to lose in the Constitutional Court and the Court of Appeal… We have a good case,” Odoi said.

Other petitioners include law professor Joe Oloka-Onyango, media personality Andrew Mwenda and former leader of the opposition Professor Morris Ogenga-Latigo.

A number of distinguished gay rights campaigners and Ugandan NGOs Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) and the Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) are also named in the petition.

Adrian Jjuuko, executive director of HRAPF, said there had been 10 cases of arrests of LGBTI and suspected LGBTI people since the law was passed by Parliament in December. There were also more than three cases of evictions of tenants by landlords who did not follow due process of the law.

Ugandan activists have vowed for years to challenge the law in court. Campaigners have already notched up two legal victories. In 2011 leading gay rights activist David Kato and two others won a case against now defunct tabloid Rolling Stone, which had called for homosexuals to be hanged. Weeks later Kato was murdered.

In 2008 two lesbians, Yvonne Oyoo and Victor Juliet Mukasa, were awarded 7,800 dollars by a judge who found their rights were violated when the pair was arrested and one of them was undressed by police.

Some activists are hopeful they could win again.

“I think court could work out, it’s usually very objective. It has been very objective in the other two cases that have been won,” Ogwaro of CSCHRCL said.

“However, there are going to be the usual delays because the judges will fear issuing the judgment and how it will be seen.”

The petitioners say that even if the Constitutional Court does not rule in their favour, it is not the end.

“We shall appeal to the Supreme Court. Uganda is [also] a signatory to the law that establishes the East African Community, there is a court and we shall explore that option. We shall keep fighting,” said Odoi.

Uganda’s gays are bracing themselves for a spate of arrests and harassment as the anti-gay bill was signed into on Monday, Feb. 24, 2014. Pictured here are participants of Uganda’s second Gay Pride parade held in August 2013. Credit: Amy Fallon/IPS

By Amy Fallon
KAMPALA, Feb 25 2014 (IPS)

Uganda’s gays are bracing themselves for a spate of arrests and harassment as the country’s draconian anti-gay bill was signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni on Monday, Feb. 24.

One gay man from Kamapla told IPS after the signing of the bill that there was nothing that he could do now and “the only thing [left] is to try my best and [leave the country] for a safer place.”

“There’s no one who says I want to become gay, especially here in Uganda. You’re just born with it. You do not choose,” he added.

The new bill, officially named the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, strengthens existing punishments for those caught having gay sex and prescribes jail terms up to life for “aggravated homosexuality” — including sex with a minor or where one partner is HIV positive. The bill also includes the “offence of homosexuality” – this is where a person convicted of homosexuality is liable to life imprisonment.

Human rights lawyer John Francis Onyango, who has represented many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and intersex (LGBTI) Ugandans, said he had “definitely” seen an increase in arrests of LGBTI people since the bill was passed by parliament on Dec. 20.

“And also many gay persons are living in apprehension about their security, their freedom and capacity to associate,” he told IPS, adding that he was currently representing the LGBTI community in court on a number of cases. Before the signing of the anti-gay bill into law, this East African nation already had some laws against those caught having gay sex.

Museveni defied international condemnation by signing the bill during a packed public ceremony at State House on Feb. 24.

It took many by surprise as Museveni said only late last week that he would put the legislation on hold while he sought advice from U.S. scientists on whether homosexuality is caused by nature or nurture.

But member of parliament Sam Okuonzi, who chairs the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, told IPS that Museveni had been under “tremendous pressure” from a growing chorus of MPs, religious leaders and locals to sign the bill. “There is nothing that has united this country so completely and so strongly as this bill,” he said.

MP Stanley Omwonya told IPS after Museveni had approved it: “It’s really (about) preserving our culture. We want our people to be morally upright.”

Human rights activists have long vowed to challenge the law in court, arguing that it violates international human rights standards and is unconstitutional. Ugandan gay rights activist and winner of the 2011 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, Frank Mugisha, tweeted: “Signing the anti-gay bill Museveni scores at his own goal post – we shall challenge this law & the old law.”

In another post he said “@YKMusevenii knows we shall over turn this law in the constitutional court & with our determination we wont stop at nothing.”

Onyango said that the “the Anti-Homosexuality Bill also raises broader concerns about mainstream human rights organisations, about their shrinking space for operation of the civil society organisations (CSOs).” According to the bill, if an NGO “promotes homosexuality” then it can be closed and its directors or leaders prosecuted.

In a statement released on Monday, Feb. 24, Human Rights Watch said Museveni had dealt a “dramatic blow to freedom expression and association in Uganda.”

Just over a week ago, U.S. President Barack Obama warned Museveni that enacting the legislation would “complicate our valued relationship with Uganda”. In the past Obama has sent U.S. troops as advisors to Uganda to help the country fight the rebel Lords Resistance Army (LRA) and track down its leader, Joseph Kony. The LRA has been responsible for mass murder, rape and kidnapping in Uganda’s north.

Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, the European Union and South African Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu also released statements or spoke out over the anti-gay bill, with some warning there may be aid cuts if it was brought into force.

According to one report on Feb. 24, Norway and Denmark immediately said they were freezing or diverting aid while Austria said it was reviewing assistance. Canada, the White House and the United Nations released a strong statement condemning the law. The EU said approving the legislation was “draconian” while the United Kingdom said it was “deeply saddened and disappointed”.

Ugandan lawyer and human rights activist Adrian Jjuuko told IPS that the country should brace itself for aid cuts. But he stressed that Uganda needed “sanctions that don’t affect the common person but rather the people passing the law.”

“There are some aspects of aid that could be cut, rather than other aspects of aid. You wouldn’t cut aid that goes to healthcare, you can’t cut aid that goes to education,” said Jjuko, who is the executive director of NGO Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum.

“Maybe in terms of military spending and things like that…if that’s the kind of aid that’s cut, that’s the cut that will be felt because it goes directly to the president, his personal interests and ambitions, rather than the people of Uganda.”

He said that to cut aid over the issue of the anti-gay bill alone would be like turning a blind eye to other human rights violations in Uganda.

“The gay issue is not the only issue in this country,” Jjuuko said. “Seen as a whole issue, Uganda’s human rights record is going down.”

Homosexuals in rural Uganda lack condoms and lubricants for safe sex. Credit: Mercedes Sayagues/IPS

By Faith Lokens
KAMPALA, Jan 21 2014 (IPS)

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has reportedly refused to sign a controversial anti-gay bill that would mean life in prison for people convicted of homosexual acts.

But many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transexual and intersex (LGBTI) people in the East African country, and NGOs trying to help them, say many have been suffering discrimination for years and it is getting worse.

“People think it [the bill] is already law,” Judith, who asked not to be identified for her safety, told IPS.  “Whether the bill is passed or not, we are suffering.”

Judith, 25, is an HIV positive former sex worker, a man trapped inside a woman’s body, who turned to sex work for financial survival after her parents suspected she was gay when she was 16 and threw her out of their village home.

For her, the rejection has already started. Judith claims she was discriminated against in early January at the clinic she regularly visits in Kampala.

Judith, who was diagnosed HIV positive in 2008 and has a dangerously low immune system and gonorrhoea, says the doctor told her that other patients were complaining because the clinic was treating a “gay”.

“‘Don’t come back,’ that’s what she told me. ‘Patients are complaining that we are working on homosexuals. It’s not allowed here in our culture. I’m a Christian,'” Judith recalled.

“I felt very bad and almost cried but I’m used to it [the slurs]. I was speechless, I left immediately,” she told IPS.

Judith says that most Ugandans do not understand the idea of being transgender.

“Here, people don’t know anything about trans [sexual] issues. They just know gay and lesbian,” she says.

The way Judith was treated is “not surprising”, Enrique Restoy, a senior advisor on human rights at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, told IPS.

“We have been receiving reports of HIV services being denied to men who have sex with men and transgender people in Uganda for years,” said Restoy.

He said that the passing of the draconian bill by parliament on Dec. 20 sent a “devastating signal to every citizen that it is okay to discriminate and stigmatise people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity.”

“The bill has been eroding the human rights of LGBTI people and driving them away from essential HIV services ever since it was tabled in parliament in 2009,” he added.

In his view, the legislation contravenes human rights conventions and political commitments on the HIV response signed by Uganda. In the 2011 United Nations Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS, all member states committed to passing laws to protect populations vulnerable to HIV.

However, in recent years, Uganda, Nigeria and Malawi have proposed or approved homophobic legislation.

In a statement, the alliance said the bill would have “a disastrous impact on the HIV response.” The U.N., European Union and United States also criticised it.

HIV prevention in jeopardy

Uganda’s bill called for life in prison for anyone convicted of “aggravated homosexuality”, which includes same-sex acts with children or by anyone who is HIV positive.

According to one report, the bill made it a crime to “promote” homosexuality, which could include offering HIV counselling to gays.

This could affect local groups, supported by the alliance and other donors, which provide HIV prevention and counselling advice to gay people.

Statistics on gay men and HIV are hard to find but, according to a survey funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, of 455 men who have sex with men in Kampala, they are at “substantially higher risk” of contracting HIV than the general adult male population.

A 2009 study by the School of Public Health at Makerere University on men who have sex with men in Kampala found that their HIV infection rates were almost twice as high, 13 percent, as the national average of seven percent.

Dr Sam Okuonzi, a medical doctor and member of parliament, calls homosexuality an “abnormality”, but says only those who “promote, encourage and glorify it” should be punished.

He is adamant that the bill would not prevent HIV positive homosexuals from using health services.

“Any prohibitive provision to that effect must have been removed or will be removed,” he told IPS. “This should enable all HIV/AIDS patients to access medical treatment without fear of prosecution.”

Okuonzi observed that the views of his constituents in Vura County in Arua District, in northern Uganda, are “more extreme” than his own.

During a recent trip to Soroti in Eastern Uganda, Judith found that LGBTI people in rural areas face even more of a battle when it comes to accessing health services and enduring discrimination.

“They don’t have condoms, they don’t have lubes [lubricants], they’re chased from their homes,” she said.

Despite feeling unwelcome, Judith believes the doctor in Kampala is not homophobic: “There is pressure from other people. She wants to keep her job. This bill has affected us a lot.”

Michel Sidibé. Credit: Courtesy of UNAIDS.

By Mathieu Vaas
UNITED NATIONS, May 22 2013 (IPS)

The global fight against HIV/AIDS has seen recent hard-won breakthroughs, including the discovery of the genetic hiding place of the virus by doctors in Australia, a 50-percent drop in new infections across 25 low- and middle-income countries, and an increase of 63 percent in the number of people with access to HIV medication.

But ending stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV has proved more resistant, particularly so for those who are part of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender or Queer (LGBTQ) community."Right now we are on the brink of reaching the response’s full potential to save lives." -- Michel Sidibé

Since its inception in 1995, UNAIDS has been a leader in strengthening the response to HIV/AIDS, as well as providing access to health care and assistance to those living with the virus and in working with grassroots communities to help them reduce their vulnerabilities.

With May 17 marking the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia, IPS spoke with Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS, about how discrimination affects efforts to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS, how that fight is moving forward, and the post-2015 development agenda.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: What is the impact of criminalisation of homosexuality on the policies UNAIDS is implementing?

A: UNAIDS is seeking to advance the vision of Zero new HIV infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AIDS-related deaths. To get there, we need to have universal access HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

Some of the populations most highly affected by HIV are gay men and other men who have sex with men, as well as transgender people. If criminalised, there is virtually no way they can access the HIV information, commodities and services they need to avoid HIV infection and to stay alive and healthy if HIV positive. Nor can they mobilise their communities and support each other to avoid risky behaviour.

Furthermore, criminalisation of homosexuality is both driven by discrimination and leads to discrimination. Many gay men living with HIV face double discrimination – for being gay and for living with HIV. We will never reach the goal of zero discrimination as long as homosexuality is criminalised.

Q: With 76 countries still criminalising homosexuality, how do you plan to reach out to LGBT communities in those countries? And worldwide?

A: It is very difficult to reach LGBT communities in these countries. However, at the same time, in such places, HIV has often been an important entry point, sometimes the only entry point, for the health and human rights of LGBT people.

While laws criminalise, the public health sector has often understood how important it is to reach these populations. They have estimated their population’s size, done epidemiological studies, included them in national AIDS responses and have implemented tailored programmes. We support them to do so, regularly convening leaders of the LGBT community with government to work together on strategies to respond to HIV.

We also ask our staff to work with the ministry of justice and with police to enable these public health responses even where homosexuality is criminalised. We need a great expansion of programmes, greater protection of rights and attention to the new and younger generation of LGBT people who need access to HIV services.

Q: Do you have a specific campaign focused on the LGBT community?

A: We do not have a specific campaign, but we are working on the HIV-related rights and needs of the LGBT community from many angles. In terms of financing the AIDS response, we are asking countries to be much smarter in their HIV investments, in particular, to put resources and programmes towards populations highly affected by HIV.

In terms of access to health services, we are seeking to expand HIV prevention and treatment to all people in need and know that many LGBT people are not getting access to these services. We hope to improve their access through promoting more user-friendly health services as well as greater outreach programmes to their communities.

In terms of human rights, we promote the fact that they, like all people, have human rights. Like the U.N. secretary-general and the high commissioner for human rights, we call for the decriminalisation of homosexuality, as well as for their rights to non-discrimination, freedom from violence, health and participation and inclusion.

Q: What is the UNAIDS agenda for the post-2015 new development goals?

A: UNAIDS remains firmly committed to supporting countries to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment care and support. This means ensuring that everyone in need has access to HIV services without stigma and without discrimination.

Although there has been much progress in ensuring that even the most marginalised in society have access there is still a lot of work to do. To end stigma and discrimination around HIV we work with a broad range of partners including, community based organisations, faith-based organisations, political leaders, scientific committees, law enforcement bodies and many other groups.

Our response focuses on expanding the evidence base and increasing political engagement; engaging stakeholders to invest in programmes to reduce stigma and discrimination and increase access to justice; strengthening technical support for addressing punitive laws, practices, stigma and discrimination and strengthening support to civil society.

Q: There have been some breakthroughs in medical research on HIV and AIDS in recent months. Can we hope for a world free of AIDS in a few generations?

A: HIV has been one of the defining issues of our time and I strongly believe that we can end the AIDS epidemic. Right now we are on the brink of reaching the response’s full potential to save lives – so now more than ever countries need to commit to action and look to a future without AIDS.

Excerpt:

By Rebecca Hanser
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 21 2012 (IPS)

For more than two decades, the internationally beloved singer and human rights activist Yvonne Chaka Chaka has been at the forefront of the South African pop music scene.

Yvonne Chaka Chaka. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Growing up during Apartheid, Chaka Chaka had a difficult childhood. After losing her father at the age of 11, Chaka Chaka’s mother was left to raise three daughters as a single mother with a meagre salary.

She grew up in a society rife with social, class and ethnic segregation, but this did not prevent Chaka Chaka from graduating with two diplomas from the University of South Africa (UNISA).

She was discovered in Johannesburg in 1985 and went on to release award-winning albums with hit songs like “I Cry for Freedom”, “Back on my Feet” and “Power of Africa”.

Chaka Chaka not only reached stardom status in South Africa and the Mbaganga music scene –a South African music style – but was also anointed the Princess of Africa.

“Being a public figure with a popular following is a great privilege but it comes with special responsibilities,” the singer told IPS in an interview.

The Princess of Africa is also known for her charity work. In addition to being Goodwill Ambassador for the UNISA and Chief Executive Officer of Gestetner Tshwane, UNICEF has also appointed her as Special Ambassador on Malaria in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Chaka Chaka spoke to IPS U.N. correspondent Rebecca Hanser on growing up in South Africa, her life as a world-class performer, and her work as a human rights activist fighting illiteracy, poverty, homophobia and illnesses like HIV and malaria.

Q: Having grown up in South Africa, what was the situation like in terms of race in your country?

A: I was born in Soweto and grew up under apartheid. The fight against discrimination runs deep in my veins. I know what it is like to be treated as inferior because of the colour of my skin.

When we remade our country it was on the basis of the equal worth and the equal dignity of every member of our society.

We learned the lesson the hard way in South Africa but we will never forget it. Nelson Mandela created the Rainbow Nation and I believe we are all equal. That is what we fought for: our freedom.

Q: Throughout Africa, discrimination based on race, ethnicity and sexual orientation is still active. Stories of violence and discrimination against the gay community inflicted by their own families reach us on a daily basis. Being a mother yourself, what is your response to this?

A: These stories break my heart. Sadly, we hear similar stories from many different parts of the world. Is it not already bad enough that our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters are stigmatised, discriminated against and attacked?

The fact that many cannot even rely on the love and support of their own parents makes it even worse. What kind of mother could treat her own children with contempt in this way?

As a mother of four boys myself, I see my job as helping them to be the best people they can be; to discover who they are; to be happy and safe; to love and be loved. I have often said that I don’t care if they bring home an Indian or an Albino, Patricia or Peter, so long as they are happy.

Q: You recently joined Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and pop artist Ricky Martin at a special event on the need for leadership in the fight against homophobia at the United Nations headquarters. Can you elaborate on the legislation in Africa, and in particular on the anti-gay laws of African nations?

A: Far too many countries on our continent still have laws that treat lesbian and gay people as criminals simply for loving someone of the same gender.

When Western countries tell us as Africans we should get rid of these laws, you hear people saying “No, we are not colonies anymore, these are our laws and we will keep them.” But where did these laws come from? In almost all cases they were imposed by the former colonial powers. Most were written in 19th Century London! They have no place in modern Africa.

When I hear that MPs in Uganda want to introduce the death penalty now for homosexuality or that lawmakers in Nigeria want to strengthen the existing punishments for same-sex couples, it makes me angry and frustrated that people can be so prejudiced. When did we start to treat one another with such contempt?

We need to start again and remember that we are all born free and equal and should have a chance to live that way every day of our lives. We need to respect each other and not be so judgmental or fearful.

Q: What do you think should change to resolve the situation for those suffering from discrimination and violence for being different?

A: First thing we must do is get rid of these antiquated laws that criminalise homosexuality and we need to put in their place new laws that protect everyone from discrimination, including on grounds of sexuality and gender identity. Once we’ve done that, we have a larger task on our hands, which is to change social attitudes, to help people to open their hearts and minds to one another.

Changing the laws is a necessary first step, but it will take education, training and talking with one another to overcome homophobia. But we know it can be done. We are making progress in the war against racism and sexism. It is time to take up the fight against homophobia. This is a war we can win if we all do our bit.

Excerpt:

Gay activist Gerald Ssentongo said activists would file a petition in the constitutional court against the bill if it were passed into law. Credit: Henry Wasswa/IPS

By Henry Wasswa
Dec 6 2012 (IPS)

Gay activist Gerald Ssentongo of Uganda is afraid to talk openly about his cause. Not only that, but he is terrified of being “caught” socialising with gay people and only meets his friends at night in out-of-reach places.

“The fear for our lives is everywhere, but it has increased of late. I am now verbally attacked and last month my friend was assaulted simply because she said she was a lesbian. The attacks can happen in any scenario,” the 35-year-old told IPS.

His concerns come at a time when the parliament of this East African nation has revived the infamous Anti-Homosexuality Bill, also known as the “Kill the Gays” bill.

Member of Parliament David Bahati introduced the bill in 2009. At the time it proposed the death sentence for people who engaged in intercourse with same-sex, under-aged or disabled persons. A convicted HIV-positive criminal who engaged in same-sex intercourse would also be given the death penalty.

In addition, the bill proposed a life sentence for a person convicted of touching another person of the same sex “with the intention of committing an act of homosexuality”.

However, threats from Western nations to cut aid and lobbying by international human rights groups forced the Ugandan government to shelve the bill.

Homophobia heightened in this conservative country in early 2011 when one of Uganda’s leading gay activists, David Kato, was murdered after a local tabloid, Rolling Stone, published his name and those of 99 other alleged “known gays and lesbians” under the headline “Kill the Gays”.

His death drew international condemnation. As a result the bill was set aside for discussion by President Yoweri Museveni and was allowed to expire in May 2011.

But the government revived it in November 2012. The Ugandan Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga recently said that the country’s culture had “no space for gays” and she vowed to push the bill into law “as a Christmas gift.”

However, the bill currently standing before parliament is slightly different from the 2009 version.

“The death sentence was removed,” one of the members of the parliamentary committee that amended the bill, Meldad Lubega Sseggona, told IPS. “The sentences now range from a few years in jail to life imprisonment for the convicted. The bill is now entirely in the hands of the speaker of parliament.”

But much still remains of the original bill. Life sentences will still be handed out to people convicted of engaging in same-sex intercourse. And the current bill also proposes a three-year sentence for a person convicted of failing to report a homosexual offence.

“It has passed through the committee and will be tabled for debate before parliament soon,” Sseggona said.

Ssentongo and other gay activists said that legislation against gays would only place them in danger from the community, which has yet to accept their existence.

“Apart from the few elite, many people think the bill is already law. We have already been made criminals in the eyes of the public,” he said.

Julian Pepe Onziema, an activist with the gay rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda, told IPS that the NGO’s members were trying to raise awareness about the dangers of passing the bill into law.

“The bill should be removed in its entirety. It is a bad law. It should not be there in the first place. Removing the death sentence is useless because a life sentence is already bad enough,” she said.

“We are lobbying the international community. We are trying to create as much awareness as possible despite the odds we face. We are telling the world that the parliamentarians are rushing to pass a bill that many people do not understand. They have not addressed the dangers involved (for gays) thereafter,” she said.

Activists are worried that revisiting the bill creates tension in an already uneasy co-existence between gays and the general public. Activists who were previously engaged in rights campaigns have gone underground, fearing for their lives, Ssentongo said.

“When we are in a group and start talking about homosexuality, people begin whispering. We fear this can trigger others and result in mob justice.

“In 2009, our movement was growing fast, but now only a few people are active. In recent days many have even completely gone into the closet. Things are worse now. I cannot even own a car because with it, I can be easily identified,” Ssentongo said.

“Issues of human rights violations should not be left to Africa alone. We are calling upon the international community to do everything within its power so that the bill is stopped,” he said.

In recent months several European countries, including the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark and Ireland, suspended aid to Uganda over corruption involving the diversion of millions of dollars in Irish aid.

Germany has also suspended its budgetary support to the country, saying its decision is related to the anti-homosexuality bill.

German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dirk Niebel was quoted as saying, “if discrimination against human rights is passed through the Ugandan parliament, this would have consequences for our cooperation.” Uganda still depends on Western financiers for 25 percent of its annual budget.

But Ugandan government spokesman Fred Opolot denied that Germany’s decision to suspend aid was due to his country’s anti-gay stance, and argued instead that it came after reports of aid mismanagement.

Opolot told reporters on Dec. 3 that the government supported parliamentary debate on the anti-homosexuality bill.

“The issue should not raise alarm because the death penalty was dropped from the bill, and Ugandans should be allowed to talk about this issue which affects their country,” he said.

Ssentongo said gay activists would file a petition in the constitutional court against the bill if it were passed into law.