In Uganda, two young women were arrested on February 18 in Arua, in the northwest of the country, for kissing in public [cite: source]. They face a life sentence under the country's anti-homosexuality law [cite: source].
The Ugandan police reported that one of the women is a 22-year-old artist and the other a 21-year-old unemployed woman. They are accused of being "involved in queer and unusual acts, supposedly of a sexual nature" since last year [cite: source].
The anti-homosexuality law, adopted in May 2023, is one of the harshest in the world. It provides for life imprisonment for consensual homosexual relations between adults [cite: source, 3]. In so-called "aggravated" cases, the death penalty can be applied [cite: source, 3]. Kissing in public is now considered evidence of homosexuality [cite: source].
The notion of "queer and unusual acts" is vague and could lead to the arrest of people for behavior that falls within the scope of freedom of expression or privacy [cite: source].
This arrest comes after a Ugandan court dropped charges against the first man charged under the law because he suffered from mental disorders [cite: source]. Human rights organizations fear that many other LGBT people will be arrested and detained [cite: source].
The Ugandan LGBT community has been living in hiding since the adoption of this law [cite: source]. Denunciations are increasing, and LGBT people fear being denounced by their neighbors, colleagues, or even family members [cite: source].
The international community has condemned the anti-homosexuality law, but the Ugandan government is standing its ground [cite: source]. The arrest of these two women raises questions about the effectiveness of international pressure and how the international community will respond to similar cases in the future [cite: source].
