Thank you very much, Madame Vandenbeld, and thank you, Mr. Chair.
External pressure is perhaps the only thing that has kept many LGBTI folks in Uganda safe. If it were not for external pressure, worse things could have happened to so many people in the country. It shines a light and creates restraint on the part of the authorities in Uganda. In moments when this pressure is waning, you begin to see worse rhetoric and abuse of the LGBTI community, so the pressure is perhaps the only thing—the only place where many LGBTI folks can speak.
I doubt that an LGBTI person could address the Ugandan parliament or a committee of parliament in the way that we are addressing you now, so external pressure means these platforms in many cases are the only places to hear the plight of LGBTI individuals.
Second, external pressure is also the only pressure that has helped in so many cases where people are being prosecuted. When they know that people are watching and when they know that the cases are being reported, there is fairer treatment in an already bad situation for many LGBTI folks in Uganda.