{"id":6093,"date":"2014-03-13T18:45:37","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T18:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=6093"},"modified":"2014-03-13T18:48:54","modified_gmt":"2014-03-13T18:48:54","slug":"eu-parliament-backs-sanctions-on-uganda-nigeria-over-gay-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=6093","title":{"rendered":"EU parliament backs sanctions on Uganda, Nigeria over gay rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EuroParl.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-6094\" alt=\"EuroParl\" src=\"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EuroParl-300x196.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EuroParl-300x196.jpg 300w, https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EuroParl.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The European Parliament backed sanctions on Uganda and Nigeria on Thursday in protest at their recent passing of anti-gay laws.<\/p>\n<p>MEPs approved a non-binding resolution by a large majority which said that the two countries violated the Cotonou accord on human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law.<\/p>\n<p>The European Commission, the EU&#8217;s executive arm, should launch an &#8220;urgent political dialogue &#8230; no later than at the EU-Africa Summit&#8221; which takes place early next month.<\/p>\n<p>There should be targeted sanctions, such as travel and visa bans, against &#8220;the key individuals responsible for drafting and adopting&#8221; the laws, the resolution said.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, there should be a review of the EU&#8217;s &#8220;development aid strategy with Uganda and Nigeria, with a view to redirecting aid to civil society and other organisations rather than suspending it&#8221;, a parliamentary statement said.<\/p>\n<p>EU Budget Commissioner Janusz Lewandowski, representing the Commission, told MEPs Brussels already &#8220;had very frank discussions with the two countries&#8221;, with more talks planned.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The outcome of these contacts will be very important in determining how our relations with Nigeria and Uganda develop under the Cotonou accord,&#8221; Lewandowski said.<\/p>\n<p>MEPs charged that the laws passed in the two countries amounted to a &#8220;grave menace&#8221; to human rights.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed a bill that calls for &#8220;repeat homosexuals&#8221; to be jailed for life, outlaws any promotion of homosexuality and requires people to report homosexuals.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Nigeria banned same-sex marriage and civil unions while homosexual acts already carry the death sentence under Sharia Islamic law which applies along with federal law in the north of the country.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Credit: AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Parliament backed sanctions on Uganda and Nigeria on Thursday in protest at their recent passing of anti-gay laws. MEPs approved a non-binding resolution by a large majority which said that the two countries violated the Cotonou accord on human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law. The European Commission, the EU&#8217;s executive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":6094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-6093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}