On Thursday 20 April during the plenary session in Strasbourg, the European Parliament condemned the anti-LGBTIQ bill in Uganda in a resolution adopted by 416 votes in favour, 62 against and 36 abstentions.
The text contains diplomatic, legal and financial proposals to discourage the enactment of the law. It suggests, for example, that Uganda should be removed from the ‘Everything but Arms’ (EBA) scheme, which exempts imported goods, except for arms, from tariffs.
More broadly, it calls on the EU to establish a strategy for the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality and transgender identity, which are still criminalised in 63 States.
“The EU must do more than simply express its deep concern”, Tomas Tobé (EPP, Swedish) said the previous day. “I have not heard the [European] Commission condemn this law [nor] ask for [its] withdrawal [nor] for measures you would take if this law were enacted”, also denounced Pierre Karleskind (Renew Europe, French).
Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides said that the EU has initiated “numerous contacts and démarches”, including a confidential meeting between the EU delegation and the Italian Ambassador to Uganda and President Museveni. She also recalled that the law would “seriously undermine its international and continental obligations”, saying that a society that guarantees the rights of all is an essential feature of “an environment conducive to business and foreign investment”.
The adopted motion for a resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/6ei (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)