Paper Title
From Juridical to Moral Approach: New Route Togay Human Rights Activism in Uganda
Abstract
Uganda’s human rights record has consistently deteriorated in recent years and continues to worsen by day. In
these circumstances, attempts at engaging activismin pursuit of human rights and justice always attract state reprisals not
only for academics but to all concerned actors. In Uganda, apart from political dissenters the gay community has suffered the
worst violations. Whereas moral reasoning on matters of human existence and governance in particular is the substratum for
human rights ideals and eventual practices, this understanding does not seem to be reflected in human rights activism in
Uganda. For the most part, human rights activism takes the form a confrontational legalistic approach instead of a persuasive
approach that relies on pure moral reasoning and persuasion. This paper ethical reflections to demonstrate the wrongness and
injustice involved in criminalizing homosexuals. The paper concludes that in circumstances like those in Uganda the
teaching of ethics and actual engagements in moral reasoning on the human condition as well as human rights as one of their
corollary is an important promise of social justice-cum-human rights to the LGBT community in Uganda and like settings.
Key words - Ethics, Moral Reasoning, Human Rights, Gay Rights, Justice, LGBT, Uganda