Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on Dec. 1st, 2025

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number seven of the House of Commons Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the subcommittee is meeting to study the situation of 2SLGBTQ+ people from Uganda.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the Standing Orders. Members are participating in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application.

I would like to make a few comments for the benefit of the witnesses and members.

Please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. For those participating by video conference, click on the microphone icon to activate your mic, and please mute yourself when you are not speaking. For those on Zoom, at the bottom of your screen, you can select the appropriate channel for interpretation: floor, English or French. For those in the room, you can use the earpiece and select the desired channel. I would remind you that all comments should be addressed through the chair.

Before we welcome our witnesses, I would like to provide this trigger warning. We will be discussing experiences related to violence. This may be triggering to viewers. If any participants feel distressed or need help, please advise the clerk. For all witnesses and for all members of Parliament, it's important to recognize that these are very difficult discussions. I know we'll all be compassionate in our conversation.

I would now like to welcome the witnesses.

As an individual, we have Mr. Paul Kanyamu, registered nursing assistant. Joining us by video conference, we have Mr. Nicholas Opiyo, founder and former executive director, Chapter Four Uganda. Also joining us by video conference, from DefendDefenders, we have Hassan Shire, executive director, East and Horn of Africa human rights defenders project. From Rainbow Railroad, we have Madame Rabab Al-Khatib, deputy head of programs; and Mr. Dennis Wamala, program officer, resettlement.

We welcome all the witnesses. Thanks for being with us.

I would like to give every one of you five minutes for your introduction and presentation. Please try to respect the time. Thank you.

We will start with Mr. Paul Kanyamu.

Mr. Kanyamu, the floor is yours.

[Paul Kanyamu, Registered Nursing Assistant, As an Individual]

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.

My name is Paul Kanyamu. I am a nursing assistant at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital on Vancouver Island in B.C.

I am Ugandan and a former refugee from Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. I'm grateful to be a permanent resident of Canada.

After experiencing persecution in Uganda in 2019, I fled to Kenya seeking safety. As soon as I arrived at the camp, I was beaten with sticks, punched in the face and thrown to the ground, along with my fellow LGBTQIA+ refugees, for identifying as queer. Security told others in the camp that we were homosexuals. Then attacks began. I was pushed into a long ditch and my bones in the right leg were broken. Camp shelters belonging to queer refugees were firebombed, including my own shelter. Lesbians were raped. I witnessed the petrol bombing of a transgender refugee, Atuhwera Chriton, who died due to second-degree burns. May her soul rest in eternal peace.

When queer refugees went to UNHCR to seek protection, the UNHCR instructed the police to disperse us. The police tear-gassed us. This resulted in lots of injuries, and a two-month-old baby died. The police are part of the problem, not the solution. The police undressed us forcibly and pulled our genitals. The police of Kenya threatened us further that they were going to arrest us and even beat us if we continued identifying as queer.

The Kenyan government said they would no longer handle LGBTQIA+ refugee cases.

When I was privately sponsored by Reaching Out Assisting Refugees, ROAR, in Nanaimo, I got some relief and regained some hope.

Informal estimates are that there are about 500 queer refugees in the Gorom refugee camp in South Sudan, and about 150 in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. Due to increased attacks in Kakuma refugee camp, queer refugees fled to the neighbouring South Sudan for safety, which is another dangerous place for queer persons. Gorom refugee camp is characterized by insecurity, lawlessness, abduction and homophobia. Queer shelters have also been destroyed in Gorom. There has been much verbal and physical violence targeting queer refugees, particularly those who identify as transgender and lesbian. In both Kenya and South Sudan, the police say they won't offer protection to homosexuals there.

In Kenya, there is no referral by the UNHCR for settlement currently. Kenyan government officials openly told us that no queer refugee would again be resettled to safety because they post a lot on social media and expose every security issue that happens in the camp. Vulnerable queer refugees in Kenya are paying a huge price for speaking up, while non-queer refugees are being resettled through the UNHCR system. Most queer refugees can't work due to discrimination, threats and assaults on their lives, forcing some to participate in survival prostitution.

Kenya refuses to provide queer refugee recognition, which results in no exit permits for those without passports. There is a limit on the number of people UNHCR and Rainbow Railroad are able refer. This creates many years of long wait for refugees. UNHCR South Sudan has repeatedly told queer refugees that they can't be referred because of limited availability of resettlement opportunities.

Canada must act now to protect these vulnerable populations. You have the power to save lives today, not years from now. The number of refugee resettlement slots has been dramatically decreased in the last budget. The Government of Canada can solve this by directly increasing the resettlement opportunities for LGBTQIA+ refugees to save their lives.

Just this past February, Canada committed to resettling 4,700 refugees fleeing Sudan by the end of 2026. I'm asking this committee to kindly ensure that at least 650 of those spaces are specifically allocated to queer refugees currently trapped in the Gorom refugee settlement in South Sudan and the Kakuma camp. They are already part of the Sudan crisis. They simply need you to recognize that their persecution is just as urgent as the conflict itself.

The rainbow refugee assistance partnership allows sponsorship agreement holders to create sponsorship groups for queer refugees beyond their annual quota. This program agreement expires in 2029, but should be made permanent.

Canada could create an emergency response for hundreds of Ugandan queer refugees now in extremely difficult situations in refugee camps in South Sudan and Kenya. Canada did this for queer Chechens in 2017, and in 2022 relocated more than 600 queer Afghan refugees to Canada.

Canada could diplomatically ask the Government of Kenya to recognize queer refugees to allow resettlement. Most importantly, the IRCC should expedite queer refugee cases from South Sudan and Kenya, since those persons face daily risks, including physical harm and death.

I thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

I now invite Mr. Nicholas Opiyo to take the floor for five minutes, please.

[Nicholas Opiyo, Founder and Former Executive Director, Chapter Four Uganda, As an Individual]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for the opportunity to testify today on the situation of the LGBTI community in Uganda. I thank you for your continued attention to this matter. I thank the people of Canada for their support to the Ugandan LGBTI community and movement.

I have been providing legal representation for the LGBTI community in Uganda for well over a decade and a half. As a founder and former executive director of Chapter Four Uganda, a civil rights organization, I have been working closely with the LGBTI community. I was the lead lawyer, in 2014, in the successful challenge to the country's anti-gay legislation. I am now part of the legal team that is challenging the current 2023 anti-gay law in the Ugandan Supreme Court.

Since the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda, contrary to popular expectation, there has not been a large number of court prosecutions of LGBTI individuals in the country. The Government of Uganda has issued non-binding circulars to limit court prosecutions of individuals under the law. For instance, the director of public prosecutions issued a circular, in August 2023, titled “Management of cases with charges preferred under the Anti-Homosexuality Act”. This circular required all files regarding LGBTI individuals to be submitted to the DPP's headquarters and to undertake an organized sensitization training for prosecutors on how to handle cases of LGBTI individuals. The Ministry of Health issued a circular as well, on August 8, 2023, emphasizing the provision and access to health services for all people, without discrimination. The Attorney General also reversed an earlier circular, by the National Council for Science and Technology, that required researchers to disclose the identity of their research subjects, and their sexual orientation and gender identity.

These circulars are not laws. They cannot and do not replace the laws enacted by Parliament. The possibility of enforcement of the LGBTI law in Uganda remains an ever-present threat to the LGBTI community, a real possibility hanging over their heads, creating an unsettling uncertainty. The steps mentioned above were taken, in large part, due to the sustained pressure and condemnation of Uganda by the international community, the challenge to the laws in court and the robust advocacy of the community and their allies against the law.

However, police and state agencies-sanctioned arrests and intimidation continue to be pervasive. These arrests do not end up in court prosecutions, but they often involve prolonged detentions in police cells, extortion, intimidation and, in many cases, public outing of individuals. Many individuals who are arrested are subjected to forced non-consensual anal exams, which include insertion of objects into their anal cavities, often in the presence of several individuals. The results of these unlawful examinations are then made public. The practice has no legal basis and, as such, any evidence obtained is inadmissible in a court of law for being obtained by means of torture. Such evidence is incapable of proving anything. They are without any basis in science. The sole objective is to dehumanize LGBTI individuals and to degrade them in society.

Mr. Chair and members of the committee, the most debilitating and perhaps the most tragic form of persecution of LGBTI individuals in Uganda may not be in a court of law but in the social terror unleashed on LGBTI individuals as a result of the enactment of this law. These are often unreported. They happen in private spaces, but do so in a drip-drip fashion. They are the lived experiences of individuals who express themselves in many ways, first within families and close relatives, then within wider societies. Documentation of such abuse since the law has passed has shown increased cases of homelessness due to family expulsion, due to expulsion from their own communities by people in the community, due to denial of rental property and evictions by landlords for those who already have houses.

Yet the world has moved on and attention to the situation in Uganda has waned.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Can you please wrap it up? Time is over. Take a few seconds to wrap it up.

Thank you.

[Nicholas Opiyo]

Thank you very much.

The challenge to the sweeping anti-gay law continues in the Supreme Court, but we have limited hope in that legal solution resolving the problem.

We require the political commitment of governments such as Canada to ensure that LGBTI individuals are saved. Support for frontline activists who are doing the work to provide safety for those in-country would be important for the Government of Canada to provide.

I thank you, Mr. Chair, and I yield back to you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

Now I invite Mr. Hassan Shire to take the floor for five minutes, please.

[Hassan Shire, Executive Director, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, DefendDefenders]

Thank you, honourable Chair. Thank you, members of the subcommittee. To all the people in the room, I bring you warm greetings from warm Kampala.

I am Hassan Shire, executive director of DefendDefenders, as the chair has said.

Only a few weeks back, in Kampala, DefendDefenders celebrated 20 years of presence and work in this subregion, providing protection for the lives of human rights defenders across the African continent.

In Uganda, as my brother Nicholas Opiyo said, there's a current law, the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, that criminalizes LGBTIQ+ rights. Petitions were filed—I was part of the people who filed it—in the Constitutional Court of Uganda challenging the law on grounds including violation of equality and privacy, among others. The Constitutional Court upheld most provisions of the act, and an appeal was lodged again in the Supreme Court of Uganda, seeking to declare the law null and void. The appeal is pending in the Supreme Court. A similar law passed in 2014 was nullified by the Constitutional Court of Uganda on procedural grounds.

In August 2023, the director general of health services in Uganda issued a statement to all health workers, asserting that access to health services is a fundamental right for all people in Uganda, without discrimination. In September, the director of public prosecutions [Technical difficulty—Editor] files related to the Anti-Homosexuality Act be sent to DPP headquarters for guidance before charges are formally laid.

A recent report by the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, a local NGO in Kampala, indicates that there have been a total 926 cases of LGBTIQ+ motivated violations reported from June 2023 to October 2025, which affected 1,240 people.

Lately, homophobia and transphobia have become widespread, with violations against the LGBTIQ+ community in Uganda mostly emanating from non-state actors, particularly communities they live in, rather than from government-sanctioned actors. Many of these violations remain unreported. The risks faced by LGBTIQ+ persons include eviction, physical assault, blackmail, legal persecution, discrimination, exclusion and online harassment. There have been cases of LGBTIQ+ persons found murdered, with the reasons for the killing not yet revealed by the police. The killing is believed to be happening because of their sexual orientation and gender identity.

The situation has further exposed members of the LGBTIQ+ community to a vulnerable social and economic life. Many are unemployed because of discrimination and persecution at workplaces. Many have been forced into exile and to seek asylum in other countries, including Canada. It's important to note that the majority are still in Uganda and in the subregion, and remain vulnerable.

The anti-gender policies globally announced and the freezing of international aid by the current U.S. administration appear to have emboldened the anti-rights sentiment and crippled community organizations in Uganda. A case in point is the Uganda Key Populations Consortium, UKPC, a Ugandan government partner organization that was engaging in the delivery of health services with LGBTIQ+ community persons across Uganda, which has experienced 70% of their programs impacted by the cut of the USAID money.

Delivery and access to health services by LGBTIQ+ persons in Uganda post-U.S. funding cuts were impacted. The current UN reform agenda, which envisages that UNAIDS will be dismantled totally next year, will have a severe impact on LGBTIQ+ persons in Uganda.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Can you please wrap it up? Your time is over.

I'll give you a few seconds to wrap it up.

[Hassan Shire]

Mr. Chair, I want to note that Global Affairs Canada hasn't been active in the protection of LGBTIQ+ persons in Uganda and the wider subregion.

I urge you, with your committee, to recommend and avail Canadian foreign aid to provide comprehensive funding to the structures both at the UN and within the LGBTIQ+ community in Uganda.

Lastly, facilitate safe passage for LGBTIQ+ individuals who are fleeing persecution by redoubling the support given to LGBTIQ+ individuals who are seeking asylum in Canada through strengthening engagement with organizations working directly with them, particularly the Rainbow Railroad.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Now I would like to invite Madame Rabab Al-Khatib from Rainbow Railroad to take the floor for five minutes.

The floor is yours.

[Rabab Al-Khatib, Deputy Head of Programs, Rainbow Railroad]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It's actually my colleague who's going to go ahead with the statement first.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Mr. Wamala, the floor is yours.

[Dennis Wamala, Program Officer, Resettlement, Rainbow Railroad]

Thank you.

Chair of the committee and members, thank you for inviting Rainbow Railroad to deliver testimony on the situation of LGBTQI+ Ugandans.

I was born and raised in Uganda and spent many years working as an activist for LGBTQI+ rights. My work placed me in direct contact with the regressive systems, institutions and actors that shape LGBTQI+ persecution across the region. I also sit before you as someone who was forcibly displaced as a result of this persecution. Today, I am a proud Canadian with a strong commitment to the LGBTQI+ community in Uganda.

Rainbow Railroad operates globally at the intersection of forced displacement and LGBTQI+ persecution. Over the past three years, Uganda has become one of the most significant drivers of our increasing caseload. Since 2023, we have received over 3,000 requests for help from Uganda, including a 2,057% spike in March 2023, when the Anti-Homosexuality Act was introduced.

This is not an isolated reality. Uganda's crisis is part of a coordinated regional anti-LGBTQI+ movement mirrored in laws, rhetoric and enforcement practices emerging across East Africa. The impact on everyday life is profound. LGBTQI+ Ugandans report police intimidation, denial of legal protection, forced eviction, firing and barriers to health care.

To respond to this, Rainbow Railroad has built 15 partnerships with Ugandan organizations since March 2023, collectively supporting over 2,500 individuals with shelter, relocation, legal aid, medical care, basic needs and mental health assistance. For many, however, escape from Uganda is the only life-saving option, but this also leads directly to new risks.

In 2025, we tracked 162 Ugandans in Kenya and 123 in South Sudan. Alongside others dispersed across the region, these individuals often find themselves in environments where the same patterns of homophobia, transphobia and violence continue. In Kakuma refugee camp, Ugandans are frequently profiled as LGBTQI+, resulting in targeted violence. Many have spent as many as 10 years without documentation or a pathway to durable protection. In Nairobi, the absence of legal status forces individuals into homelessness, unsafe work and exploitative environments. Conditions in South Sudan's Gorom camp are similarly precarious and lack any LGBTQI+ competent protection.

These realities are echoed in our queer forced displacement initiative consultations, where refugees consistently identify three barriers: one, prolonged or stalled registration and refugee status determination processes; two, continued exposure to violence in camps and urban settings; three, lack of any credible pathway out. Many refugees describe their situation as being trapped between danger in the camps and danger at home. The challenge is not simply flight from Uganda, but a lack of access to protection pathways for LGBTQI+ persons across the region.

Canada has the tools to address these gaps in a targeted and effective way. Rainbow Railroad offers the following recommendations to the Government of Canada.

One, expand the government-assisted refugees partnership with Rainbow Railroad to include a dedicated allocation for Ugandan LGBTQI+ refugees in Kenya, South Sudan and neighbouring countries in the region.

Two, expand funding for Canada's LGBTQI+ international assistance program that sustains the queer forced displacement initiative, which recognizes LGBTQI+ forced displacement as a priority within international human rights programming.

Three, establish a standing rapid response mechanism for sudden anti-LGBTQI+ crackdowns across all Canadian missions.

I'm here in Canada because of the compassion of the Canadian government. The individuals currently stranded in camps and cities across East Africa need that compassion today. Canada's leadership, applied through existing mechanisms and informed by on-the-ground expertise, can create the pathways to protection that LGBTQI+ Ugandans need today.

I thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

Ms. Al-Khatib, would you like to make a statement?

[Rabab Al-Khatib]

It's not a statement. I can wait for the questions and I can answer, or I can add a couple of points. I don't know if we have time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

You will answer the questions after this.

If you would like to say something now, I will give you the floor.

[Rabab Al-Khatib]

Thank you so much. I'm always lucky with more time, I think, in the committees.

Hearing all the testimonies, I have to say that from what we have already seen through the cases that we have received from Ugandans in Uganda or Ugandans outside Uganda, mainly Kenya and South Sudan, the situation is dire. LGTBQI+ Ugandans in Uganda and outside Uganda need support.

I will just double down on the recommendations of Rainbow Railroad. Mainly, there is an opportunity here to grab, which is the GAR, the government-assisted refugee partnership with Rainbow Railroad, in which the Government of Canada has already reiterated its commitment to human rights. I think there is a way today to increase the resources and increase the slots for resettlement to make sure that we are supporting the most at-risk LGBTQI+ Ugandans, whether in Uganda or outside Uganda.

I'll stop here, and I'm happy also to answer more questions. Thank you so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Fayçal El-Khoury]

Thank you.

We have another witness, who is not here yet. We'll continue.

I would like to thank all the witnesses.

Now we'll open the floor for a question and answer session. We will start with Madame Tamara Kronis.

You have the floor for seven minutes, please.

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank all the witnesses for describing the situation so clearly, and particularly I want to thank Mr. Kanyamu and Mr. Wamala for sharing their personal experiences in Uganda. Everything that we know and everything that we've heard about the situation on the ground in Uganda paints it as a situation where fear and precarity dominate and where people are struggling to lead lives that are safe and fruitful.

To start, I'll ask Mr. Wamala this particular question. There are about 49 million or 50 million people in Uganda. It's a country that's a little bit bigger than Canada, more or less, population-wise. How many people are there at risk in Uganda?

[Dennis Wamala]

Thank you, Tamara. That's a question that always gets us using percentages, because we have not had a census to say that this is the number of LGBTQI+ people. It's not even a recognized community in the country, but we know that at least 1% of the population has an inclination or at least identifies in some way as an LGBTQI+ person.

I would say there are about four million Ugandans at risk in the country right now. Most of those are in hiding. Most of those are in the closet.

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

In terms of the active population, how big is the crisis in Uganda? I'm sorry, but that's what I meant to ask.

[Dennis Wamala]

Right now, since 2003, we've seen an escalation in reporting in terms of evictions, in terms of police arrests, in terms of [Inaudible—Editor] in the country, and these are in the hundreds.

For example, in March 2023, when the second bill was passed, we had at least 800 people reporting evictions or arrests or intimidation of some kind, less than three months after the bill passed. These numbers keep on fluctuating, but they're in the high hundreds and sometimes over 1,000, depending on what the political rhetoric is and how much the police are going after people.

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

In terms of your experience with Rainbow Railroad, one thing that we know happens is that when opportunities come to leave and go to a place of safety, the number of applications goes up dramatically.

You said you've received 3,000 applications since 2023. Is that number growing? Has it stabilized? What's the situation there?

[Rabab Al-Khatib]

On the matter of numbers, we know for sure that between 2023 and late 2025, we received more than 2,800 requests for help from Ugandans in Uganda. We're also receiving requests for help from Ugandans outside of Uganda. The two biggest numbers are from South Sudan and Kenya.

These numbers did stabilize a little bit. We saw a big spike when the bill was passed, of course, in 2023. Up until now, when LGBTQI+ people moved outside of Uganda, they moved to find safety, but the reality is that the danger was actually exacerbated. With the displacement, another layer of protection is needed for LGBTQI+ people that we don't see.