The Ugandan parliament voted in a turbulent session on Tuesday night to pass a bill that would impose severe penalties on people who engage in homosexual relations.
The United Nations and global rights body Amnesty International on Wednesday called on Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to reject an anti-homosexuality bill passed by parliament Tuesday night, warning that it is "a grave assault" on LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer) people.
The Ugandan parliament voted in a turbulent session on Tuesday night to pass a bill that would impose severe penalties on people who engage in homosexual relations.
MPs significantly amended the original text, which provided for up to 10 years in prison for anyone engaging in homosexual acts or claiming to be LGBTQ+, in a country where homosexuality was already illegal.
According to RFI, the extent of the new penalties under the law was not immediately known.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, called on Museveni on Wednesday not to enact the law.
"The passage of this discriminatory text -probably the worst of its kind in the world-- is a deeply troubling development," he said in a statement.
"If signed into law by the president, (this law) will make lesbians, gays and bisexuals criminals in Uganda simply by existing (...). It could give carte blanche to the systematic violation of almost all their human rights," he added.
Homosexuality is already illegal in the conservative East African nation and it was not immediately clear what new penalties had been agreed.
"This ambiguous, vaguely worded law even criminalises those who 'promote' homosexuality," Amnesty's east and southern Africa director, Tigere Chagutah, said.
Lawmakers amended significant portions of the original draft legislation with all but one speaking in favour of the bill.
MP Fox Odoi-Oywelowo, a member of Museveni's National Resistance Movement, party who spoke against the bill, told AFP that offenders would face life imprisonment or even the death penalty for "aggravated" offences.
Amnesty said Museveni "must urgently veto this appalling legislation", adding that it would "institutionalise discrimination, hatred, and prejudice" against the LGBTQ community.
The discussion about the bill in parliament has been laced with homophobic language and Museveni himself last week referred to gay people as "these deviants".
Nevertheless, the 78-year-old leader has consistently signalled he does not view the issue as a priority, and would prefer to maintain good relations with Western donors and investors.
Uganda is notorious for its intolerance of homosexuality -- which was criminalised under colonial-era laws. But since independence from Britain in 1962 there has never been a conviction for consensual same-sex activity.
A court later struck down the law on a technicality, but it had already sparked international condemnation, with some Western nations freezing or redirecting millions of dollars of government aid in response.
Last week, police said they had arrested six men for "practising homosexuality" in the southern lakeside town of Jinja.
Another six men were arrested on the same charge on Sunday, according to police.