Uganda slammed for failure to protect LGBTQ+ community from online harassment News
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Uganda slammed for failure to protect LGBTQ+ community from online harassment

Months after Uganda’s passage of draconian anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, human rights advocates are sounding the alarm over the country’s failure to protect members of the community from online harassment. Amnesty International on Wednesday reported a recent uptick in such harassment, finding that following enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) of 2023, attacks against LGBTQ+ people have increased, forcing both individuals and organizations to significantly alter how they present themselves and engage with people online.

Members of the country’s beleaguered LGBTQ+ community have increasingly become online targets, resulting in offline consequences such as arbitrary arrests, torture, and other ill-treatment, forced evictions, dismissal from work, exposure to offline violence, as well as stress, anxiety, and depression. Due to the attacks, LGBTQ+ people are unable to access, communicate, and socialize in digital spaces, which has also hindered their access to health services.

LGBTQ+ people are now in a hostile environment since they are not only faced with physical violence and abuse from individuals but also repressions from Ugandan authorities that have clamped down on human rights defenders and organizations championing their causes. Shreshtha Das, Amnesty International’s gender researcher, noted that while LGBTQ+ activists and organizations have continued to use digital spaces in a very hostile environment, the stigma, violence, and discrimination they face in offline spaces have been mirrored and amplified in digital spaces.

The portrayal of LGBTQ+ people as “sexual predators” as well as subjection to derogatory and offensive language has led to emotional distress, social marginalization, economic hardship, and, in some cases, physical violence on the part of individuals. On their part, the Ugandan government has taken no action to quell the increasing online hate. The police have been accused of exposing LGBTQ+ people to threats, physical violence, and humiliation. As a result, LGBTQ+ individuals are afraid of reporting cases of online abuse due to fears of being blackmailed or arrested by the police.

Amnesty International has urged the Ugandan parliament to immediately repeal the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 and other laws that criminalize acts and behaviors that negatively impact the LGBTQ+ community. Authorities have also been advised to establish an independent mechanism to conduct effective, prompt, impartial, and independent investigations into allegations of online harassment and other rights violations committed against LGBTQ+ people.

Amnesty International’s report comes after a Ugandan LGBTQ+ advocacy group published a similar report in June of this year.

 

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