US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the bipartisan budget agreement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 28, 2023. – US President Joe Biden and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said they were confident on May 28, 2023 of pushing a debt crisis deal through Congress and avoiding a cataclysmic default, despite skepticism from some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. (Photo by SAMUEL CORUM / AFP)
Biden urges repeal against Uganda anti-gay law
US President Joe Biden slammed Uganda’s draconian new law against homosexuality as a grave human rights violation, threatening to cut aid and investment.
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the bipartisan budget agreement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 28, 2023. – US President Joe Biden and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said they were confident on May 28, 2023 of pushing a debt crisis deal through Congress and avoiding a cataclysmic default, despite skepticism from some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. (Photo by SAMUEL CORUM / AFP)
US President Joe Biden on Monday slammed Uganda’s draconian new law against homosexuality as a grave human rights violation, and threatened to cut aid and investment in the east African country.
He called for the immediate repeal of the tough new measures, which state among other things that “engaging in acts of homosexuality” in Uganda would be an offense punishable with life imprisonment.
“The enactment of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act is a tragic violation of universal human rights,” Biden said in a statement, joining a chorus of condemnation after President Yoweri Museveni signed the measures into law.
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“No one should have to live in constant fear for their life or being subjected to violence and discrimination,” Biden said. “It is wrong.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered his own condemnation, saying the United States was “deeply troubled” by the law’s passage.
“Uganda’s failure to safeguard the human rights of LGBTQI+ persons is part of a broader degradation of human rights protections that puts Ugandan citizens at risk,” Blinken said in a statement.
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Biden said he had asked his National Security Council to assess what the law means for “all aspects of US engagement with Uganda,” including services providing AIDS relief, and other assistance and investments.
He said the administration would also consider slapping sanctions on Uganda and restricting the entry into the United States of people engaging in human rights abuses or corruption there.
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Blinken reiterated the possibility of visa restrictions, and said the State Department would “develop mechanisms to support the rights of LGBTQI+ individuals in Uganda and to promote accountability for Ugandan officials” involved in human rights abuses.
© Agence France-Presse
