About Know your Rights
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'Know Your Rights' is a documentation project under the Equality and Non discriminaiton program at Chapter Four Uganda. The photo documentary project is an educational project that aims to raise awareness and consciousness among the Ugandan society about the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) individuals and specifically about the concept of 'Equality and Non discriminaiton'.
The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, Under Article 21 states that;
(1) All persons are equal before and under the law in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life and in every other respect and shall enjoy equal protection of the law.
(2) Without prejudice to clause (1) of this article, a person shall not be discriminated against on the ground of sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, social or economic standing, political opinion or disability.
(3) For the purposes of this article, “discriminate” means to give different treatment to different persons attributable only or mainly to their respective descriptions by sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, social or economic standing, political opinion or disability.
Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, Under Article 21
While this provision doesnot explicitly mention 'Sexual Orientation and Gender Indentity' as a ground for Non discrimination, it does guarantee equality for ALL persons under the law and all spheres of life.
The Concept of Equality is often times lost in translation for individials who Indefity as, or are perceived to be LGBTI due to Institutional, Cultural and Religious biases and negative perceptions. Religion and cultural beliefs and norms have been used to justify the persecution and discriminaiton of LGBT individuals, there were unprecedented reports of violations against the LGBT community both from State and Non State Actors in the wake of the infamous Anti Homsoexuality Law that was introduced in 2009 and Nullified by the Constitutional Court in 2014.
There have been various reports of cases of inequality in access to Health care, Justice, Quality education, Housing and employment opportunities and other social, political and economic benefits. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill succeeded in normalising persecution and dicrimination of LGBTI individuals and its detrimental effects unfortunately continue even after its annulment.
While the LGBTI community still struggles to advance this argument for recognition and promotion of their entitlement to equal rights inpart due to lack of political will and society's deeply held homophobia beliefs, it does not in any way indicate a lack of conciousness about their Human Rights.
In this first theme series of 'Know your Rights', we publish potraits of LGBTI communtiy members and their allies presenting their interpretations of Equality as a basic Human Rights Principle. We seek to increase the visibility of the individuals' inherent rights within the Ugandan public. It is our hope that by potraying these resilent and courageous individual's views, we engage the Ugandan society in conversations about fair and equal treatment of LGBTI people, the spirit of 'Ubuntu'/solidarity for fellow human beings and advocate for greater support mechanisms to protect their constitutionally guranteed Human Rights.