Continued assaults on LGBTQI people in Uganda: appeal against AHA to go ahead

4 March 2026. Related: Early access, Treatment access, Activism & advocacy.

Simon Collins and Ashwin Caffery, HIV i-Base

Although the impact of the international health crisis from the cancelled US funding last year has dominated much of the news from Uganda, the human rights impact of the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) from May 2023 still continues.

The law imposes the death penalty for same-sex activity and 10-year prison sentences for people who support LGBTQI+ people or who do not report them. [1]

The five examples below are from a 15-page monthly report from the human rights organisation HRAPF covering December 2025. [2]

This is the 31st monthly report that continues to document cases where people were targeted purely on the basis of their real or assumed sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression (SOGIE), as reported through the national HRAPF legal aid network.

These include violent attacks or threats, evictions, police entrapment and arrest, extortion and other human rights violations, including when accessing healthcare.

A total of 38 cases were reported during December – and 55 cases during November.

HRAPF have reported 956 cases since May 2023, covering evictions (395), violence (388), arrests (151) and other (22). As some cases involved more than one person, this affected a total of 1,276 people: evictions (479), violence (474), arrests (299) and other (24).

Example 1: The client was at his home waiting for a friend when he heard a knock. He opened the door, thinking it was his friend, but was instead confronted by three men unknown to him, who forcefully pushed into the house and immediately started beating him, accusing him of recruiting young men in the village into homosexuality. They left him unconscious, and his friend found him a while later and took him to hospital.

Example 2: The client was engaged in a debate about politics with some people he met in a bar and as the argument escalated, one of the opponents said that the client was only supporting his particular political party because he is gay anyway. This led to the client being hit, kicked and insulted, before the bouncer broke up the fight. The client sustained minor injuries all over his body.

Example 3: The victim in this case met someone through a gay dating app and the two eventually agreed to meet up on 6th December. When the client showed up for the meeting, however, two policemen came to meet him, forcibly took his phone and dragged him to the nearby police station, accusing him of engaging in homosexuality and demanding money in exchange for his release. He was held for 4 days.

Example 4: The client received phone messages from an intimate partner demanding exorbitant sums of money and threatening to tell the client’s neighbours and the police that the client had lured him home and ‘recruited’ him or otherwise enticed him into engaging in ‘gay sex’. The client was frustrated because even after he caved to the initial demands, the perpetrator simply kept asking for more money.

Example 5: The client in this case, a transgender woman, went to seek for healthcare at a government health centre but on arrival, a female health worker looked at her with visible disdain before stating that she looked like a homosexual, and asking if she was bleaching her skin to attract more men. A few other staff who were present joined in, commenting on her appearance and comparing her to other women in the facility, saying that she looked more ‘ladylike than real women’. The client got frustrated and anxious as this had started to attract a crowd of both patients and other health workers, so she walked away without seeing a doctor.

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On 17 March 2026, The Uganda Supreme Court announced that it will hear the appeal to overturn the AHA on 31 March – the culmination of a three-year legal battle.

A statement on X from sexual minorities champion SMUG, a Ugandan NGO that was suspended by the government from operating a year before the AHA came into force, said, “While the outcome remains in the hands of the Court, the hearing is a reminder that efforts toward justice for the LGBTQ community continue.” [3]

Reference

1. Uganda report: Increase in LGBTQI+ assaults and human rights violations need urgent activist responses. HTB (1 October 2023).
   https://i-base.info/htb/46384
2. Human Rights Awareness and Prevention Forum (HRAPF). Report on cases of violence & violations based on real or presumed SOGIE for December 2025. (20 January 2026)
   https://hrapf.org/mdocs-posts/hrapfs-report-on-cases-of-violence-violations-based-on-real-or-presumed-sogie-for-december-2025
3. @SMUG2004/SMUG. (2026). Update on the Anti-homosexuality act Appeal Hearing. The Supreme Court of Uganda has scheduled the hearing of the appeal challenging… [X]. 12:46PM, 19 March.
   https://x.com/SMUG2004/status/2034612520732729613