A statement from the leaders of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law:
For the past few days since the Anti Homosexuality Act was signed into law,
the Coalition Legal Committee has been engaged in plans for challenging the
law as agreed upon in the Legal Strategy Meeting.
As such, seven advocates from five law firms have been engaged to prepare to
challenge the AHA. The team has been officially working on the case since
Friday 28th and have held five meetings jointly since then, and many smaller
meetings.
The petition is already drafted, and input has been sought and obtained from
over 20 lawyers worldwide. I would like to thank those who have made input
in the petition. I believe we have a pretty watertight case now.
As for petitioners, we have 10- 1 Professor of Law as the leading
petitioner, 1 MP who is among the authors of the minority report, 1
journalist/political commentator, 1 former leader of opposition, 1 openly
gay medical doctor, 3 LGBTI leaders, and two organisations.
We have so far finalized 5 affidavits- for five of the petitioners and five
are being finalized. We expect to have all affidavits in by tomorrow, and to
have all of them commissioned by tomorrow.
We have also prepared two applications for stay of implementation of the
law, and also to stop the on going media outings. These will be filed
alongside the main petition.
We expect to hold out last pre filing meeting on Sunday and then we file on
Monday. The necessary fees have already been paid in full and are also
working to ensure there is media attention when we file.
I would like to thank all those who have provided support to us during this
process.
We thank you so much for the continued solidarity.
– Adrian Jjuuko, Chairperson of the Legal Committee of the Coalition
Read the official Coalition statement on the Anti-Pornography and Anti-Homosexuality Acts in Uganda: Coalition Statement.
Please check out their website as well for more information on what they do: Coalition website.