Sadiya Ansari

A ruling this month by Uganda's Constitutional Court to water down a tough anti-LGBTQ+ law may have stemmed from concern to avoid further international sanctions over the controversial legislation, rights activists and analysts say.

The court's decision to strike out several of the law's most contentious clauses came weeks after a similar law passed by Ghana appeared to have hit a roadblock amid Finance Ministry warnings it could derail $3.8 billion in international aid.

A Ugandan court has upheld a sweeping law that introduced the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality", leaving only one legal route to challenge some of the most punitive anti-LGBTQ+ measures in Africa.

The Constitutional Court on Wednesday upheld the validity of the so-called Anti-Homosexuality Act, while striking down some of its key sections, citing health and privacy concerns.

Rights groups expect Uganda's Constitutional Court to issue a verdict imminently on an appeal against the strict anti-LGBTQ+ law the country passed last year that imposed the death penalty for some same-sex acts.

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Despite the decriminalisation of same-sex relations in Mauritius in 2023, rights groups warn that new laws being considered in several African countries risk eroding LGBTQ+ rights by creating new offences and targeting new groups.   

Many of the new bills resemble Uganda's draconian Anti-Homosexuality Act, which was signed into law last May and which includes the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality".

In the 20 years since U.S. President George W. Bush launched the world's biggest investment to fight HIV/AIDS, the fund has had a "dramatic and life-saving impact", UNAIDS U.S. liaison office director Vinay Saldhana told Openly.

The U.S. government says it has invested more than $110 billion through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and saved 25 million lives and prevented millions of HIV infections.

Ghith arrived in Poland in November 2021, seeking asylum from Syria where he had been jailed for refusing to do military service that would have likely sent him to the front lines of a bitter civil war.

On his fifth attempt to cross into Poland from neighbouring Belarus, the 29-year-old, who asked for only his first name to be used, was detained with a group of other asylum seekers.

Joshua Haider gave up his Pakistani citizenship in 2019 to become a Ukrainian national and settle in the country where he had studied medicine.

He was looking forward to his wife and daughter joining him.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year sparked the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two, but also a wave of solidarity as thousands opened their homes to Ukrainians and EU states gave them rights and benefits akin to their own citizens.

The European Union swiftly granted temporary protection to millions of fleeing Ukrainians, giving them immediate rights to work and access to education, healthcare, welfare and housing, almost the same as local nationals.