The ICJ has submitted information to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in preparation for the Committee’s examination of the initial periodic report of Uganda under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
During its pre-sessional working group meeting in December 2014, the Committee will adopt a ‘List of Issues’ for the examination in June 2015 of the initial periodic report of Uganda under ICESCR.
In this submission, the ICJ draws the Committee’s attention to the detrimental impact of the adoption and enforcement of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014, as well as the effect of pre-existing and extant criminalization of consensual same-sex sexual conduct on the respect for and the protection and realization of certain Covenant rights.
The organization considers that those laws violate the following Covenant rights of Uganda’s population generally, and in particular of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, living or working in Uganda:
- The principle of non-discrimination (article 2(2));
- The right to work (article 6) and to just and favourable conditions of work (article 7);
- The right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate housing (article 11);
- The right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (article 12);
- The right to education (article 13).