Proposition 53K3385

Proposition de résolution visant à lutter contre la discrimination à l'égard de la communauté LGBT en Ouganda.

General information ¶

Authors

LE Georges Dallemagne
MR Corinne De Permentier
Open Vld Mathias De Clercq, Herman De Croo
PS | SP Christiane Vienne
Vooruit Bruno Tuybens

Submission date

Feb. 19, 2014

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

Uganda discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation resolution of parliament development aid human rights sexual minority

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP ∉ Open Vld N-VA LDD MR VB

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

April 22, 2014 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Mr. Speaker, I will be brief. The present resolution, of which Mr Tuybens is the main speaker, addresses the precarious situation of holebi and transgender people in Uganda.

Despite international pressure, President Museveni signed a law on February 24 that punishes homosexual acts and the spread of homosexual ideas with life imprisonment. The draft resolution calls for the negotiations on the cooperation programme with the partner country Uganda to be reminded of the universality, indivisibility and inviolability of human rights. The next cooperation programme should include conditions that encourage the Ugandan Government to improve the human rights situation in general, and the rights of the LGBT community in particular.

Following discussion and submitting several amendments to update and improve the text, the text of the resolution is adopted unanimously.

So far the report. I would like to add to this the position of the N-VA. We will support the proposed resolution. After all, the N-VA realizes that in the struggle for human rights pragmatism can be a good thing. While there is still a huge gap between countries where progress is made and countries where progress is not made, we welcome any progress.

At the proposal of my group, and in this case of myself, the term “LGBT” was opted, so that in addition to the holebi’s, transgender and bisexual people are included in the proposal for a resolution. In addition, my amendment, which calls for maximum consultation with local human rights organisations and the LGBT community, was unanimously approved. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank you for this.

We will not immediately change the course of history with this proposal for a resolution, but sometimes moving a cane into the stream is already more than enough.

Mr. President, Mrs. Minister, Mr. Minister, Dear colleagues, Uganda, which is, as you know, one of the partner countries of Belgian development cooperation, has become the symbol of intolerance towards homosexuals; a galoping intolerance presented as a choice of society by the authorities of that country, thus ostensibly violating the rights enshrined in the United Nations Charter and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Uganda has ratified.

Despite international pressure, the president of Uganda has passed a law that tightened the repression of homosexuality. Adopted by an overwhelming and worrying majority, it now literally opens the door to the persecution of LGBT. It makes it possible to move faster by criminalizing the promotion of homosexuality and imposing the denunciation of homosexuals. Radical pressure groups were able to enjoy their victory, while human rights defenders were reduced to expressing consternation over a law both liberticide and dangerous, ⁇ with regard to the prevention of STDs.

Both by our support for this resolution and by our positions, my group obviously wants to condemn such a law as strongly as possible, as well as all legislation that approaches it. This condemnation is not dictated by paternalism or neocolonialism, but by our total rejection of violations of the most fundamental rights – and that everywhere in the world.

If a stronger diplomatic stance is necessary, the question is how to react in the face of such an increase in intolerance. How do we deal with the legalization of hatred? The answer is difficult when we know that ⁇ three-quarters of African countries, with the notable exception of South Africa, have legislation banning or suppressing homosexuality.

I think that the reaction of our Prime Minister was able to provide a first answer to this difficult question, both in the answer he gave us in the plenary session and through his speeches in European and international forums.

I would also like to highlight the position taken by our country at the last EU-Africa summit, the assembly of which was composed, among others, of the President of Uganda himself.

Elio Di Rupo called on African leaders to ensure respect for the rights of minorities, including sexual.

Like him, we cannot tolerate, anywhere, that some are deprived of their rights and persecuted because of their origin, sexual orientation, religion or beliefs. Certainly, several European countries have made another choice than a firm diplomatic reaction by simply announcing the freezing of part of their aid to Uganda, after the promulgation of this anti-gay law.

However, my group is convinced that development cooperation is and must remain a positive lever of Belgian foreign policy. We should remember two elements. First, the fight against discrimination is transversally found in the Law of 19 March 2013 on Cooperation. Then, our help to Uganda is not about justice or police, but about education and health care. If our country must obviously ensure that these projects continue to fit perfectly in respect of fundamental rights, they cannot be stopped net! It is not a question of sanctioning populations receiving development aid with the risk of hitting the weakest and forging the weapons of the conservatives and anti-West.

In the end, it is also not about falling into Uganda-Bashing. Let us not misunderstand this! This is one of the strictest laws in Africa. This law, however, must not make us forget the submerged face of the iceberg: the struggle against gay, emissary goat, and more broadly against all discrimination does not stop, unfortunately, in this partner country. While this country has rightly focused on it all the eyes of the international community, the recent convictions in Egypt for homosexuality or the Russian anti-gay laws come to remind us that unfortunately, discrimination still has beautiful days ahead of it.

The right to live together, the right to be different, are now threatened. The situation in Africa is, of course, the most appealing, but, closer to us, in our own home, the struggle to live it together and so that each can live his life is always relevant. For these reasons, my group will strongly support this text that we have co-signed, while emphasizing that the struggle is far from over and must be imposed, including in parliamentary diplomacy.

I thank you for your attention.

On February 24, Uganda’s President Museveni signed a stricter anti-holes law. With this signature, homosexual acts were sentenced to life imprisonment. Since 1950, the situation of holebians in Uganda has not been rosy. They are discriminated, arbitrarily arrested, illegally imprisoned and abused. The new law implies a huge penalty burden. One can get a lifetime if one repeatedly exhibits so-called unnatural sexual behavior or spreads pro-homosexual ideas and/or writings. New is also that being HIV-positive is defined as an aggravating condition.

This new law not only puts homosexuals at risk of life imprisonment, but also puts numerous national and international activists and organizations legally engaged in defending human rights in Uganda at risk. In addition, homosexuals have virtually no access to health care and counseling. Often, there are no safe places to meet each other. With the anti-hole bias legislation, Uganda places itself out of any respect for human rights. One of the most important fundamental rights is the non-discrimination principle. This means that no individual should be discriminated or persecuted on grounds of race, religion, ethnic origin, belief or sexual orientation.

Uganda is the fourth largest partner country for our country, colleagues. We cannot close our eyes to such human rights violations in one of our partner countries. This resolution therefore calls for the importance of respect for sexual orientation and gender identity to be emphasized in every political dialogue with the Ugandan government, as our Prime Minister, Mrs. Vienne, has effectively emphasized recently in relation to African presidents and heads of government.

Moreover, this resolution calls on the federal government to include a clause in the negotiations on a new cooperation programme between Belgium and Uganda, requiring the Ugandan government to take clear steps towards a non-discrimination policy towards the LGBT community.

However, this is relatively new, because in this way you actually set conditions for further development cooperation with respect to a particular country. The Ugandan government must therefore make drastic efforts to create a support for tolerance.

I therefore hope, as the main contributor to this resolution, that it will be unanimously adopted, as I think it is a strong signal to the Ugandan government and means – ⁇ not less importantly – also a great deal of support to the LGBTI community in Uganda and other countries where they are now treated as criminals, for who they are.

I would like to thank the reporter and my colleagues for their remarks.

This resolution is the last thing I was allowed to do on behalf of the SPD in Parliament. I wish you all very successful elections.

Unfortunately, I was prevented at the committee meeting where the present resolution was discussed, and therefore I am giving a brief explanation.

Since its independence from the British Kingdom in 1962, Uganda, the country as well as its population, has fallen into a drop from the rain. Uganda has gone from dictatorship to dictatorship, one more bloody and thirsty than the other. Uganda began under Milton Obote and was owned from 1971 to 1979 by a crocodile farmer, Idi Amin Dada. After expelling him, it was again up to Milton Obote to terrorize and murder his own people. Great was therefore the expectation in the West when in 1986 Yoweri Museveni drove – or is it the scepter? to take over. Unfortunately, again, it was and has been a measure for nothing for many years. Museveni established, under pressure from the West, a false democracy with permissible opposition. In essence, it was no better than before. Museveni was also the first man to make large-scale use of child soldiers in all his internal and regional military conflicts. What the lives of child soldiers and military child whores mean, we now know.

Also about Uganda’s role in the ongoing Congolese drama can be written parts. In 2005, the International Court of Justice in The Hague sentenced Uganda to considerable damages for the numerous killings of Congolese civilians and the looting of Congolese land treasures.

It is possible to see if they have ever paid a euro for it. Nevertheless, Museveni has always been, for some incomprehensible reason, the crap child of the West, including of Belgium and our politically correct establishment.

Aid money flowed into Uganda, including from Belgium.

I quote from the explanation of this resolution: “In the current ISP, the Indicative Cooperation Program, Belgium drew out a budget of 64 million euros for cooperation with Uganda, thus raising the country to the fourth place on the list of largest partner countries of Belgian development cooperation.”

Nevertheless, it must take a while for Museveni to blame – excuse me for the expression – to the hole world before our Parliament wakes up and the ISP connects very carefully to the respect for the human rights of the holebi. Better late than never, I would say.

Again, it says very much about the two sizes and two weights of the insiders of this resolution. In fact, such a resolution should have been adopted by Parliament many years ago, because the horrible way in Uganda, from dictatorship to dictatorship, even under Museveni, the sock is held with human lives, and not just that of holebi, is disgusting.

What says a lot about the two sizes and two weights of this resolution is that dozens of such resolutions – which is also stated in the introduction – could be submitted, because you say yourself that 76 countries worldwide criminalize homosexual acts. This includes almost all Islamic countries. Let’s be honest: that requires too much courage.

We will approve this resolution, consistent with the resolution of 3 March 2011 on the abolition of the criminalization of homosexuality, but these concerns must have been removed from my heart.