Take Action

Call  your Congress person to show your opposition to the proposed anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda and to encourage his/her support to ensure strong US government opposition to this  bill, which if passed would be devastating to health and human rights in Uganda.

• Call 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your representative. If you don’t know who your current representative is, find out here!
• Introduce yourself as a human rights advocate and a constituent of your Representative.
• Sample call script:

As a [health professional/medical student/concerned citizen], I recognize and respect the important connection between the protection of human rights and the promotion of health. Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill of October 2009 is an offensive bill that violates an individual’s rights to life, non-discrimination, expression, association, and a life free from harassment, and inhumane or degrading treatment. It will make it harder for doctors, nurses and medical professionals to provide confidential medical care to their clients, and will have a major negative impact on Uganda’s fight against AIDS.

On Thursday January 21, 2010, the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC)  is holding a hearing to discuss this bill – I hope staff from your office will attend. Can I count on Representative _____ to oppose Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill and publicly support US government action to prevent the Bill from being passed?

Public Statement:

Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC) Hearing:

LGBT Community Under Attack:

Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Thursday, January 21, 2010

2:00 – 3:30 PM

Room 2171 Rayburn HOB

Please join the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for a hearing on the recent developments affecting the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in Uganda. The hearing will be held on Thursday, January 21, from 2:00 – 3:30 PM in room 2255 Rayburn HOB. The hearing is open to the media and the public.

On October 14, 2009, an ‘Anti-Homosexuality Bill’ was introduced in Uganda’s parliament. The bill as drafted would increase the penalty for “same sex sexual acts” to life in prison, limit the distribution of information on HIV through a provision criminalizing the “promotion of homosexuality,” and establish the crime of “aggravated homosexuality” punishable by death for anyone in Uganda who is HIV positive and has consensual same-sex relations. Further, the bill includes a provision that could lead to the imprisonment for up to three years of anyone who fails to report within 24 hours the identities of everyone they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or who supports human rights for people who are, to the government.

After an international outcry over the bill, including a strong response from the U.S. Department of State, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni stated in a speech on January 13, 2010, that the bill had become a ‘foreign policy issue’ and needed further consultation before being voted on in parliament.

To discuss these important issues, we will welcome as Commission witnesses:***

I.  Panel:

Representative, U.S. Department of State (invited)

II.     Panel:

Julius Kaggwa, Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Uganda

Cary Alan Johnson, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Rev. Kapya Kaoma, Political Research Associates

Christine Lubinski, HIV Medicine Association, Infectious Diseases Society of America

*** Witness List subject to change.

If you have any questions regarding this hearing, please call Hans Hogrefe (Rep. McGovern) at 202-225-3599.

James P. McGovern, M.C.

Co-Chair, TLHRC

The Boston Globe wrote:

“If Iran’s leaders want to convey a message of conciliation and justice, they should have (Arash and Kamiar Alaei) exonerated.”

Media coverage of the case is world-wide. BBC Persia has interviewed PHR’s Washington Director John Bradshaw, and the case is being covered by Italian Press, Radio Free Europe and more.

Want to help draw attention the Alaeis? Surf the blogs and make comments on articles mentioning the Alaeis, and/or write letters to the editor at national and international news agencies about the Alaeis, urging their release.

Roxana Saberi’s release yesterday has shifted attention to the Alaeis just as they are about to exhaust their legal options. Iran tied her release to the concept of Islamic kindness: it’s time for Iran to extend that kindness to the Alaeis, so they can continue their critical fight against AIDS in Iran.

Join the virtual vigil at IranFreeTheDocs.org 11-1:00 today to hear from and chat with people around the world, and stand in solidarity with the Alaeis.

The Washington Post today reports:

The cholera outbreak gripping the country is just one sign of the disintegration of a once-admired health-care structure that essentially ceased to function in late 2008, denying Zimbabweans their human right to health, according to U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights.

“Cholera is not the issue,” said Frank Donaghue, chief executive of the group, which presented the report at a news conference here in South Africa. “Cholera is a symptom of a grossly collapsed health system due to the blatant disregard by Mugabe of his people.”

In a related article, Zimbabwe cholera deaths more than 2,000 – WHO, the Post also says:

Zimbabwe’s cholera epidemic has killed more than 2,000 people and almost 40,000 have contracted the normally preventable disease in Africa’s worst outbreak in nearly a decade, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday. …

U.S.-based Physicians for Human Rights called on Zimbabwe’s government to hand over control of its health services, water supply, sanitation and disease surveillance to a United Nations-designated agency.

The group said the U.N. Security Council should enact a resolution referring Zimbabwe’s crisis to the International Criminal Court for investigation.

Internationally, The Telegraph, in the UK, headlines an article “Robert Mugabe should face trial say US doctors”.

The recommendation came in a damning report published after the group’s fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe last month.

They were forced to flee after interviewing 92 health workers, patients, nurses and members of the public, and being accused by the government of being American spies.

The doctors, members of a group called Physicians for Human Rights, also concluded that the United Nations should take over the country’s health system.

And in an article titled “The Horror Mugabe Doesn’t Want the World to See”, ReligionDispatches.com notes that

Bishop Desmond Tutu calls for the world to take action against the regime of Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe and the Nobel Prize-winner has signed the preface to a harrowing new report from Physicians for Human Rights on the man-made situation that may, if ignored, match Rwanda.