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Showing posts from May, 2010

Malawi gay couple freed after presidential pardon

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In this photo taken Thursday May, 20, 2010 file photo, Tiwonge Chimbalanga, foreground, and Steven Monjeza, left back, are led from court in Blantyre, Malawi, after a judge sentenced the couple to the maximum 14 years in prison for unnatural acts and gross indecency under Malawi's anti-gay legislation. Malawi's president says he has pardoned and ordered the release of the two Saturday May 29, 2010. (AP Photo/Alex Ntonya, File) A prison spokesman in Malawi says a gay couple pardoned by the president has been released. Evance Phiri said Sunday that Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza were released late Saturday, hours after President Bingu wa Mutharika pardoned them without condition. Mutharika stressed that homosexuality remains illegal in the conservative southern African country. It was not clear where the men went after their release. They were not at their Blantyre home when an Associated Press reporter visited Sunday. Malawi had faced international condemnation for the c

Dr Rwakimari promises to address Minorities concerns under HIV/AIDS bill she tabled this week

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Hon Beatrice Rwakimari, the Ntungamo District Member of Parliament and Chairperson of the HIV/Aids Committee in Parliament has said all concerns of sexual Minority groups in Uganda regarding the HIV/AIDS control Bill 2010 she tabled mid this year in Parliament shall be addressed. She said this in a meeting in Kampala with the Executive Director of UHSPA-Uganda, Mr. Kikonyogo Kivumbi. Ms Rwakimari said she “understood" UHSPA's concerns of minority, LGBTI groups if the bill is passed in the current form and said a position paper by minority groups is welcome. “This law is for all Ugandans. Minorities are Ugandans and we shall listen to them equally," She said. Mr. Kivumbi told Rwakimari that LGBTI and sex workers are being targeted by the spirit behind the bill to control them. “Minorities need not be controlled. They are partners in the fight against the pandemic and should be part of the process," Kivumbi asserted. He specifically raised a clause on the confidenti

Anti-gay laws in Africa are product of American religious exports, say activists

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After enduring decades of state torture and gross human rights abuse,minorities in Uganda are the next target When he arrived at Kampala’s Hotel Triangle for a three-day conference, the Rev Kapya Kaoma knew that he would not like what he heard. The clue was in the event’s title — “Exposing the truth behind homosexuality and the homosexual agenda” — and in the line-up of guest speakers arranged by Stephen Langa, head of the Ugandan-based Family Life Network (FLN), and an outspoken advocate for the criminalisation of homosexuality in Uganda. Given top billing at the event hosted by the FLN was Scott Lively, president of Abiding Truth Ministries, an American conservative Christian group from California, and a Holocaust revisionist whose controversial book The Pink Swastika names homosexuals as “the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities.” Weeks after the Kampala conference in March last year — which followed a meeting between the speakers and members of

hiv/aids control bill 2009 press release

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UGANDA HEALTH AND SCIENCE PRESS ASSOCIATION _____________________________Press Release__________________ For immediate release: Contact person: Kikonyogo N. Kivumbi (English, Luganda, and Kiswahili) Cell: +256 752 62 84 06 Email: uhspauganda@gmail.com HIV/AIDS Control Bill 2009 unfairly targets minorities Kampala: May 19, 2010… Uganda Health and Science Press Association is concerned about the spirit and implications behind the HIV/AIDS Control Bill 2009 tabled this morning in the Parliament of Uganda. Whereas it is true that Uganda needs a formal policy or legal mechanism to manage the pandemic, the spirit behind the “Control” bill is an attempt to target minority groups, including LGBTI, Commercial sex workers and People Living with HIV/AIDS as the problem fuelling the pandemic whose prevalence statistics are stagnated at 6.4% in the last few years. Rather than seeking “to control”, Uganda should be looking at “Managing” the pandemic, in which the propose

Witch-hunting minorities: the skeletons behind Uganda’s new proposed HIV/AIDS Control Bill 2009

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( Minorities do not cause drug shortages in hospitals. corruption does) The law will drive people, especially minorities underground; in the face of possible prosecution and forced disclosure, most people will hide way,(shy away). There would be no reason to take tests in fear of prosecution. Besides, Uganda already has laws on the penal code that criminalizes sex work and LGBTI community. By Kikonyogo N.Kivumbi At about 6.7%prevalence rate of Hiv/aids in the general population( NAFOPHANU estimates), Uganda government is stuck with the statistics for some years now. In an effort to appease donors and electorate for the 2011 general presidential campaign in which the current President Yoweri Museveni is contesting the fourth term after 23 years in power, the blame for the stuck statistics has been delivered to the door step of minority groups in the country. The thinking in the ruling party is that sex workers and LGBTI are the problem why the rates are not going down. Then another

Cabinet committee rejects Bahati Bill

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(Monitor Story- www.monitor.co.ug) Kampala A committee of Cabinet has made recommendations that could end Ndorwa West MP David Bahati’s ( pictured above) proposal to have a separate law punishing homosexuality in Uganda. The recommendations, which Saturday Monitor has seen, come close to dismissing Mr Bahati’s draft legislation. The committee, put together to advise the government after Mr Bahati’s draft legislation left Uganda condemned by sections of the international community, looked deep into the language, tone and relevance of the draft legislation, dissecting every clause to determine its usefulness. It was not clear who wrote the draft legislation, the committee’s report says, noting that the document had “technical defects in form and content”. The result left the draft legislation almost bare, as nearly all of the clauses were found either redundant, repetitive of existing laws, or even useless. In fact, the committee found that only “Clause 13” of the draft legislation, abou

Joyce Meyer opposes Anti Homosexuality Bill 2009

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Against the bill: teleevangelist Joyce Meyer The statement from the Ministries follows From: Joyce Meyer Ministries Date: Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 3:03 PM It is increasingly evident that the proposed “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” introduced in the Ugandan parliament is a profoundly offensive, dangerous and disturbing attack on the very foundation of individual liberties and human rights afforded not only to the good citizens of Uganda, but on the at-large global community. If enacted, this hostile legislation will also further, and adversely, serve as a major setback in the global health efforts to combat Uganda’s AIDS epidemic and reduce the record-high infection rates among the country’s HIV population, an already at-risk community that could be further ostracized, threatened, and targeted as potential criminals. Our missions and ministry message has always been to teach that the Word of God is about helping people – all people – learn that God loves them and has a purpose for their live