A Ugandan court has rejected a petition by an LGBT advocacy group looking to force the government to register it.
Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) had originally filed the suit in the country’s high court in 2015, after the government’s registrar of companies declined listing it. This would have permitted the organisation to operate legally.
SMUG had said at the time that the organisation promoted the interests of people whose lifestyles were outlawed by Ugandan laws.
Notwithstanding the allegations, the Ugandan government in 2022 suspended SMUG’s operations because it was not officially registered.
Same-sex relations have been outlawed in Uganda since the British colonial era and the country approved one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBT laws in May, banning the “promotion and support of homosexuality.
The case had decided on Tuesday, March 12, that it was an appeal of a lower court judgment from 2018 that had ruled against SMUG. Note that SMUG is one of Uganda’s most prominent LGBT rights organisations.
The court had ruled that since the objectives of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) were to actually promote the rights and welfare of people whose conduct was criminalised under the laws of Uganda, then the registrar was correct in saying that the name was undesirable,” SMUG’s lawyer, Edward Ssemambo had remarked.
A challenge to the law had already been argued before the court in December but LGBT rights activists say they expect another ruling soon.
