Moving closer to Russia, Georgia's Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili recently signed a repressive "Russian-styled" anti-LGBTQ bill into law. The move ignored the United States' snub of the former Soviet republic at the recent United Nations General Assembly and the European Union's pause on admitting the country.
Meanwhile, in Uganda, another country whose billions in financial assistance from the U.S. and World Bank is on hold, was slapped with more sanctions by the U.S. In a twist, the action came a week after the East African country's Human Rights Commission asked the government to decriminalize homosexuality and other "victimless crimes" on September 26.
Georgia's draconian anti-LGBTQ signed into law
Papuashvili signed the controversial anti-gay Law of Georgia on Family Values and Protection of Minors bill into law October 3. His signature went against President Salome Zurabishvili's refusal to sign the bill, returning it to Parliament with suggested amendments.
Georgia Dream Party leader Papuashvili, who co-authored the bill, didn't hesitate to sign it into law. Georgian lawmakers overwhelmingly passed the bill on September 17. Papuashvili had five days to sign and publish the law after the president refused, reported Civil Georgia.
"This law protects the rights of all citizens, including freedom of expression, without violating the rights of other people, which is the very essence and idea of true democracy," Papuashvili wrote in a Facebook post with a picture of him signing the bill.
The "Russian-styled" bill amended 18 laws targeting LGBTQ Georgians. The law denies LGBTQ Georgians freedom of speech and assembly, censors educational organizations and publishers, bans changing gender identity documents, bans same-sex marriage, and bans same-sex and non-cisgender adoption of children, among other prohibitions.
The law will go into effect 60 days after publication. Georgian voters go to the polls October 26.
Papuashvili's action came nearly two weeks after Georgian transgender model Kesaria Abramidze was brutally murdered, which the Bay Area Reporter previously reported.
In the Facebook post, Papuashvili criticized Zurabishvili, who is not a member of the Georgian Dream Party, and the opposition. He wrote that Zurabishvili declining to sign the bill and the opposition's protest of the bill was a refusal to protect "what is most valuable to a person — family and children."
He continued, calling progressive values "temporary" and that "changing ideas and ideologies" did not reflect "common sense, historical experience and centuries-old Christian, Georgian and European values."
The new law has further jeopardized Georgia's goal of joining the E.U.
Georgia was granted candidate status into the E.U. in 2023. The E.U. put the country's bid to join the union on hold after the passage of another bill, a Russian-styled foreign agent law that Parliament passed in June.
Many of Georgia's organizations that fall under the law refused to comply and did not register by the September 2 deadline. Only 469 out of approximately 30,000 organizations in Georgia registered by the deadline. The organizations face fines for each month they don't register.
The Georgian Dream Party is turning toward Moscow and away from the West, reported Politico.
Papuashvili defiantly recognized the conflict the bill presented with Georgia's foreign partners, mainly the United States and the E.U., in the name of preserving Georgia's identity. He denied that tens of thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, and other cities, protesting against the anti-gay law.
Instead, he wrote the bill had the public's support, claiming "a million Georgian citizens came out on the streets of Georgian cities, which led to an actual referendum on this law, on May 17 as proof."
Civil Georgia reported Papuashvili's argument was "counterfactually."
Last month the E.U.'s top diplomat, Joseph Borrell, warned Georgia's government that passing the law, which was proposed by the Georgian Dream Party the day after passing a foreign agents law, "undermines the fundamental rights of the Georgian people" and would "derail" Georgia's hopes of joining the E.U., reported Politico.
The U.S. issued more visa restrictions on Georgian officials, froze assets and bank accounts in the U.S., and shunned Georgia's delegation during the U.N. General Assembly in New York City last month, according to statements from the state departments.
Last month, Tamara Jakeli, Tbilisi Pride's director, said the Pride organization would only survive if the Georgian Dream Party "were to lose power in October."
"The only way we can survive in this country and have any progress on LGBT rights is for us to go in great numbers to the elections and vote for change," she said.
US adds more sanctions against Uganda
The U.S. State Department expanded sanctions against Uganda last week, blocking four Ugandan police officers allegedly involved in human rights violations from traveling to the U.S.
The sanctions came nearly a week after Uganda's state-funded Human Rights Commission asked Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's government to decriminalize homosexuality and other "victimless crimes" on September 26, reported Watermark Online.
The State Department instated visa restrictions against four members of the Uganda Police Force, or UPF, "due to their involvement in gross violations of human rights, namely torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in an October 2 statement.
The department named the sanctioned officers in the statement as Bob Kagarura, the then-Wamala regional police commander of the UPF; Alex Mwine, then-district police commander for the Mitanya District of the UPF; Elly Womanya, then-senior commissioner within the UPF and deputy director of the UPF's Criminal Investigations Division in charge of the Special Investigations Unit; and Hamdani Twesigye, then-deputy inspector of Police assigned to SIU. The department also banned travel to the U.S. for the officers' immediate family members.
Miller noted in the statement that allegations of human rights abuses documented by the Ugandan civil court, civil society organizations, and independent journalists were "serious and credible."
Speaking up
Speaking about LGBTQ rights, Uganda Human Rights Commission Chair Mariam Wangadya, who is a lawyer and human rights advocate, told attendees at the annual stakeholders meeting for the African Centre for Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture Victims in Uganda, "Criminalizing such acts often results in unjust and disproportionate punishment, especially for vulnerable groups in our society."
It was the first time the commission's leadership stated its position on Uganda's LGBTQ community.
ACTV-Uganda is an anti-torture and anti-violence and rehabilitation center for Ugandan survivors and refugees in the East African country, according to the organization's website. The organization also provides the commission with medical reports for torture cases to assist it in determining compensation for survivors of torture to rebuild their lives, Wangadya acknowledged, reported Watermark Online.
Wangadya noted that 50% of the 939 cases currently pending a hearing before the commission's tribunal are "allegations of violation of the right to freedom from torture, inhuman and degrading treatment."
"We must ensure that every person in Uganda enjoys their human rights without discrimination," said Wangadya.
Wangadya's statements come after the commission met with LGBTQ rights organizations, the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum and Support Initiative for People with Congenital Disorders, an intersex group, on September 14, reported Watermark Online. HRAPF and SIPD both track and report on human rights abuses against LGBTQ Ugandans.
In April, a coalition of LGBTQ Ugandan organizations appealed Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act signed into law in 2023 and mostly upheld by the country's Constitutional Court earlier this year to Uganda's Supreme Court, the B.A.R. previously reported.
Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, the opposition leader and principal of the National Unity Platform, thanked the U.S. and warned violators of human rights in Uganda that they would be held accountable for their actions, reported The Monitor.
"They're also a reminder to all overzealous senior, mid-level, and junior security officers that they will be held individually responsible for the crimes they commit against the people of Uganda," he wrote in a post on X. "We are very thankful to the government of the United States for continuously listening to the pleas of the people of Uganda about those who violate rights with impunity and remain untouchable by the captured institutions in Uganda."
We are very delighted to receive news of fresh sanctions imposed by the United States of America on four senior police officers, who have been involved in torture, cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment. The four are Bob Kagarura, Elly Womanya, Alex Mwine and Hamdan Twesigye.... pic.twitter.com/ckUasm7hK6
— BOBI WINE (@HEBobiwine) October 2, 2024
Wine, a former member of Uganda's parliament, ran against longtime leader Museveni and lost the 2021 presidential election.
A former singer, Wine is a controversial figure for LGBTQ Ugandans. More than a decade ago one of his songs called for the "burning and killing of all homosexuals." In 2013, the United Kingdom banned him for life from ever returning to the country for those lyrics.
Last year, Wine responded to questions about his stance on LGBTQ rights in Uganda.
"I took responsibility," he told the audience at a rally. He claimed a BBC reporter took his words out of context from the interview where he said, "that people grow and transform." As a leader, Wine said he has transformed from calling for the death and killing of gays and people who are different from him to someone who is "not calling for the killing of anybody."
Uganda lost billions of dollars in financial aid provided by the U.S., the World Bank, and other countries after Museveni signed the East African country's Anti-Homosexuality Act into law in 2023, the B.A.R. previously reported.
Got international LGBTQ news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at WhatsApp/Signal: 415-517-7239, or [email protected]
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