‘Deeply troubling’: UN rights chief on Uganda anti-gay bill

By RODNEY MUHUMUZA
Associated Press

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The U.N.’s top human rights official is urging Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to block an anti-LGBTQ bill that prescribes harsh penalties for some homosexual offenses, including death and life imprisonment. Volker Turk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement Wednesday that “the passing of this discriminatory bill – probably among the worst of its kind in the world – is a deeply troubling development.” Uganda’s legislature passed the bill late Tuesday. The offense of “aggravated homosexuality” carries the death penalty. Aggravated homosexuality applies in cases of sex relations involving those infected with HIV as well as minors and other categories of vulnerable people.