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Early Day Motion urges scrap the Bill, decriminalise same-sex relations
By: Peter Tatchell
Harry Cohen
What YOU can do
Please ask your MP to sign EDM 575 on Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
You can email your MP direct via : this website Just click on the link and enter your postcode. It will tell you who is your MP and you can email him or her direct. Easy.
All you need to do is write as follows:
Draft letter to your MP
Dear (insert your MP's name),
As one of your constituents, I urge you to sign EDM 575, tabled by Harry Cohen MP. It condemns Uganda's draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill. This Bill proposes the death penalty for some same-sex acts and life imprisonment for others. The Bill also proposes up to seven years jail for anyone who advocates gay equality and three years jail for parents who fail to report their gay sons or daughters to the police.
Please also consider writing to the Uganda High Commissioner in London:
Her Excellency, High Commissioner Joan Rwabyomere, Uganda High Commission, Uganda House, 58-59 Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DX. Phone 020-7839-5783, Fax 020-7839-8925 or E-mail: info@ugandahighcommission.co.uk
Harry Cohen
Uganda "Kill Gays" bill - what YOU can do
Please ask your MP to sign the Early Day Motion on Uganda
In a press statement today (14 January) gay rights camaigner Peter Tatchell writes:
”Labour MP Harry Cohen has tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM 575) condemning Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
“The Bill proposes the death penalty for certain categories of same-sex acts, including for repeat offenders, and life imprisonment for merely touching another person with homosexual intent.
”We hope the EDM will send a signal from the British parliament to the Ugandan government that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill constitutes an unacceptable attack on the human rights of Uganda's lesbian, gay and bisexual citizens.
”This Bill violates Article 21 of the constitution of Uganda, which guarantees equality and non-discrimination:
21. Equality and freedom from discrimination.
(1) All persons are equal before and under the law in all spheres of
political, economic, social and cultural life and in every other respect and
shall enjoy equal protection of the law.
”It also breaches the equality and anti-discrimination provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which Uganda has signed and pledged to uphold.
”We are very grateful that Harry Cohen has tabled this Early Day Motion. He is a long-standing ally of the LGBT community and has championed gay equality for two decades. Way back in the early 1990s, he was one of the few MPs to ask Parliamentary Questions and write to Government Ministers, pressing for the repeal of homophobic laws. We thank him.”
Read the Early Day Motion here
”We hope the EDM will send a signal from the British parliament to the Ugandan government that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill constitutes an unacceptable attack on the human rights of Uganda's lesbian, gay and bisexual citizens.
”This Bill violates Article 21 of the constitution of Uganda, which guarantees equality and non-discrimination:
21. Equality and freedom from discrimination.
(1) All persons are equal before and under the law in all spheres of
political, economic, social and cultural life and in every other respect and
shall enjoy equal protection of the law.
”It also breaches the equality and anti-discrimination provisions of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which Uganda has signed and pledged to uphold.
”We are very grateful that Harry Cohen has tabled this Early Day Motion. He is a long-standing ally of the LGBT community and has championed gay equality for two decades. Way back in the early 1990s, he was one of the few MPs to ask Parliamentary Questions and write to Government Ministers, pressing for the repeal of homophobic laws. We thank him.”
Read the Early Day Motion here
What YOU can do
Please ask your MP to sign EDM 575 on Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
You can email your MP direct via : this website Just click on the link and enter your postcode. It will tell you who is your MP and you can email him or her direct. Easy.
All you need to do is write as follows:
Draft letter to your MP
Dear (insert your MP's name),
As one of your constituents, I urge you to sign EDM 575, tabled by Harry Cohen MP. It condemns Uganda's draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill. This Bill proposes the death penalty for some same-sex acts and life imprisonment for others. The Bill also proposes up to seven years jail for anyone who advocates gay equality and three years jail for parents who fail to report their gay sons or daughters to the police.
Please also consider writing to the Uganda High Commissioner in London:
Her Excellency, High Commissioner Joan Rwabyomere, Uganda High Commission, Uganda House, 58-59 Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DX. Phone 020-7839-5783, Fax 020-7839-8925 or E-mail: info@ugandahighcommission.co.uk
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To view his campaigns online log on to http://www.petertatchell.netTo make a donation to his human rights work click http://www.tatchellrightsfund.org/donations.htm
