The Constitutional Court of Uganda has begun hearing the first challenge to a draconian anti-gay law that has led to United States visa restrictions on government officials. The East African nation adopted one of the world’s harshest laws against homosexuality in May, prompting an uproar by rights advocates and Western powers, with US President Joe Biden threatening to cut aid and investment to Kampala. But President Yoweri Museveni’s government has struck a defiant tone, with officials accusing the West of trying to pressure Africa into accepting homosexuality. The petitioners calling for the law to be overturned include several human rights activists, two law professors from Makerere University in Kampala, and two legislators from Museveni’s National Resistance Movement party.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
