The World Bank says it will no longer finance new projects in Uganda following the enactment in May of the ‘Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023,’ viewed as one of the most repressive in the world.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the institution said the text “fundamentally contradicts the World Bank Group’s values.” It added that under these conditions “no new public financing" for Uganda will be presented to the group's Board of Directors.
“We believe our vision to eradicate poverty in a liveable planet can only succeed if it includes everyone irrespective of race, gender, or sexuality,” the bank stated, adding that the new law called these efforts into question.
President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African country with an iron fist since 1986, promulgated the law on 29 May, sparking outrage from human rights organisations and many Western countries. Despite threats of sanctions, he vowed that “no one will make us move.”
The text provides for heavy penalties for people having homosexual relations or “promoting” homosexuality. “Aggravated homosexuality” is a crime punishable by death in Uganda, although such a sentence has not been applied for years in the country.
US President Joe Biden called the law a “tragic attack” on human rights and the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell saw it as “contrary to human rights.”
In 2014, international donors had reduced their aid after a previous law repressing homosexuality had been passed. The law was eventually annulled by the Constitutional Court on the grounds of a technical defect in the vote.
