arrest of human rights activists reprimanded

By Jabulani Dube (BTM Fellow)

ALL AFRICA – July 15, 2008: A protest led by Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and lesbians, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex ( LBGTI) organisations took place last week to condemn arrest of HIV and Aids, and human rights activists in Uganda. 

Juliana Pepe, Valentine Kalende and Usaam Mukwaya were arrested by the Ugandan government on 4 June this year. They were charged with criminal trespassing while demonstrating against the government’s exclusion of sexual minorities from the national HIV and Aids prevention programmes during the HIV/ AIDS Implementers Meeting that took place between 3 and 7 June.

People living with HIV and Aids (PWA), a programme within the TAC, together with a coalition of human rights organisations picketed outside the Ugandan High Commission in Pretoria on 8 July, demanding that the case of these three activists be thrown out of court.

The protest was also an expression of solidarity with the activists who are presently on trial in Kampala.

A memorandum, which condemns systematic abuse of LGBTI rights by the government of Uganda and urges that country’s authorities to dismiss the charges against the fellow activists,  was handed over to the Ugandan embassy, office bearer, James Mugaga.

It also calls on the Ugandan government to ensure the elimination of all forms of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, and to facilitate implementation of a comprehensive prevention programme that is aimed at all the people of Uganda including sexual minorities.

While TAC mainly deals with HIV and Aids issues, it has revealed that it accommodates LGBTI issues as they are also human rights matters.

“We have recently established an LGBTI sector to cater for sexual minorities, and we felt that this is an opportunity for us to get involved in challenges faced by the LGBTI community in Africa”, Luckyboy Mkhondwane, Treatment and Literacy Coordinator at TAC, explained.

The accused appeared in court on 9 July, and their hearing was adjourned to 25 July to allow the public prosecutor to bring more state witnesses to court.