Our experience as a global coalition working to end punitive responses to people living with HIV in all their diversities has taught us that criminal laws are not only ineffective, they are also counterproductive to the HIV response. Such laws are not driven by evidence but by perceived “morality” and often lead to a myriad of human rights violations, from arbitrary arrests and detentions to coerced confessions and plea bargains to unfair trials and harsh prison sentences.
In April 2023, we published an open letter to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni calling upon him not to sign the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 into law. We urged him to show how Uganda is committed to protecting all of its citizens and doing no harm to people for simply being who they are by instead enacting legislation to protect the rights of LGBTIQ people, already a vulnerable and marginalised group in Uganda, from all forms of hate, violence, and inhumane treatment and to ensure the protection of their fundamental rights irrespective of their sexual orientation.