Uganda and Beyond: Defending Global LGBTI Rights without Undermining Them

Date 

Add to My Calendar Thursday, April 10, 2014 12:00am

Location 

Uganda’s Anti Homosexuality Act, which was signed into law by President Museveni on February 24, 2014, is a draconian law that has sparked global protest and outrage, including sanctions by Western governments that, ironically, may reduce services to vulnerable populations, including LGBTI Ugandans.

CCR Senior Staff Attorney Pam Spees will speak on a panel alongside some of the leading voices in the current debate over Uganda’s LGBTI laws and the international community’s response to date. The panel will provide a platform to discuss issues at play in the case of Uganda, which have relevance for other countries where similar legislation will be or has been passed. It will critically interrogate the role of the international community—including human rights advocates—in successfully challenging this law without further endangering the very population that needs protection, while also thoughtfully questioning the responsibilities of the international community to protect Uganda’s LGBT population without causing them further harm. Some of the questions that will be addressed include:

American evangelicals such as Scott Lively have been accused of inciting homophobia in Uganda and elsewhere in the region, drumming up support for the bill’s passage. At the same time, some have blamed western governments’ criticisms of the bill for fueling populist arguments that supported the bill’s passage in an effort to assert independence from colonial powers.

What: Uganda and Beyond: Defending Global LGBT Rights without Undermining Them
When:
 April 10th from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Where:
NYU School of Law Lester Pollack Colloquium, Furman Hall 9th Floor

Valid ID and RSVP are required for this event. Please RSVP to Audrey Watne at [email protected] to be guaranteed admission. Event will be followed by a brief reception

Panelists

Introduction: Margaret Satterthwaite  is Professor of Clinical Law at NYU School of Law, Faculty Director of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice, and Director of the Global Justice Clinic. Follow her on Twitter @SatterthwaiteML.

Clare Byarugaba is the co-coordinator at the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Uganda, which was established in October 2009 in response to the tabling of the now notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill in the Ugandan Parliament. The Coalition now includes 51 Ugandan civil society organizations, including human rights, feminist, HIV focused, LGBTI, media and refugee organizations and groups. Its primary objectives are to pro-actively contribute to elaborating a positive sexual rights agenda for Uganda and to strengthen the capacity of civil society to engage in and contribute to these debates.

Pamela Spees is a senior staff attorney in the international human rights program at the Center for Constitutional Rights. She has a background in international criminal and human rights law with a gender focus, as well as criminal trial practice. She serves as lead counsel on several of CCR’s cases and initiatives including, Sexual Minorities Uganda v. Lively, a case brought by a Ugandan umbrella group of LGBTI organizations against a U.S. based anti-gay evangelist, for his role in the persecution of LGBTI people in Uganda. Follow her on Twitter @PamSpees.

Wade McMullen is the Staff Attorney for the International Strategic Litigation Unit at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (RFK Center). McMullen brings high impact human rights cases with a focus on non-discrimination and creating an enabling environment for human rights defenders. Previously McMullen was the first Donald M. Wilson Fellow at the RFK Center, and received his J.D. from the New York University School of Law, where he was a researcher for the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions. Follow him on Twitter @wademc.

Marianne Mollmann is Director of Programs at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in New York City. Follow her on Twitter @cluelesscamper.

Francis Ssekandi is Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School. Born in Uganda, Ssekandi served as a Judge of the High Court of Uganda, and later Justice of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Uganda. He has held a wide variety of prestigious legal positions, including Deputy Director in the United Nations’ Office of Legal Affairs, General Counsel of the African Development Bank, and Judge on the World Bank Administrative Tribunal. He has taught at several African and U.S. universities and has published on law and development, human rights, and good governance.

Moderator: Lonnie Isabel is an Associate Professor and Director of the International Reporting program at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. Isabel serves on the advisory boards of the International Reporting Project and the International Media Institute of India in Delhi.

Last modified 

April 9, 2014