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Summary: Thirty-eight organisations have been accused of receiving international support in their "conversion" of children into homosexuality.
[20 June 2012] - The government of Uganda announced on Wednesday that it will ban at least 38 non-governmental organisations that are accused of "promoting" gay rights and "recruiting" children to homosexuality. Minister of State for Ethics and Integrity Simon Lokodo alleged that those organisations are receiving international support in their "conversion" of children into homosexuality, which is criminalised in the country. He ordered the police on Monday to break up a meeting organised by the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project (EHAHRDP) in Kampala that was specifically for the gay community in the region. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has condemned the Ugandan government for violating "fundamental rights to speech, assembly and association, as well as to be free from arbitrary arrest and detention." Amnesty International (AI) echoed the CCR by calling Monday's police raids illegal. Uganda and many other African countries have legislation in place that criminalises homosexuality. International human rights groups have constantly called on the Ugandan government to this practice. In March the CCR filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Ugandan rights group Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) against Scott Lively, a US pastor with Abiding Truth Ministries, for enabling the anti-gay movement in Uganda in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. A month earlier, AI condemned the shut down of an LGBT workshop by advocacy group Freedom and Roam, declaring it illegal and trying to arrest the leader. During the same month, Uganda had reintroduced legislation that would make certain homosexual activities punishable by death. Further Information:
pdf: http://jurist.org/paperchase/2012/06/uganda-government-banning-organizat...