SDIR meeting 7 · 2025-12-01 — Committee Evidence — LegisWatch

Summary

The subcommittee on International Human Rights met to study the situation of 2SLGBTQ+ people from Uganda, hearing from Paul Kanyamu, a registered nursing assistant and former refugee; Nicholas Opiyo, founder of Chapter Four Uganda; Hassan Shire, executive director of DefendDefenders; and Rabab Al-Khatib and Dennis Wamala of Rainbow Railroad.

Paul Kanyamu described being attacked in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, where his leg was broken and a transgender refugee was petrol-bombed to death. He said UNHCR and Kenyan police failed to protect queer refugees, and that Kenya refuses to register LGBTQIA+ refugees for resettlement. He asked Canada to allocate at least 650 of the 4,700 Sudan-crisis resettlement spaces to queer refugees in Gorom and Kakuma camps, to make the rainbow refugee assistance partnership permanent, and to expedite cases of privately sponsored refugees.

Nicholas Opiyo explained that while Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act has not led to many court prosecutions, police arrests, forced anal exams and social persecution—including evictions and family expulsion—remain pervasive. He said the Supreme Court appeal is stalled and he is not optimistic about a positive ruling, as evangelical groups have influenced the judiciary. He recommended that Canada provide sustained funding to frontline activists, use multilateral institutions like UNAIDS to support the community, and impose targeted visa bans on individuals promoting anti-LGBTI sentiment.

Hassan Shire reported 926 LGBTIQ+ motivated violations in Uganda from June 2023 to October 2025, with most violence coming from non-state actors. He noted that U.S. aid cuts have crippled community health organizations and that Global Affairs Canada has not been active in protecting LGBTIQ+ persons in the region. He urged Canada to provide comprehensive funding to UN structures and community organizations in Uganda, and to facilitate safe passage for those fleeing persecution by strengthening engagement with groups like Rainbow Railroad.

Dennis Wamala said Rainbow Railroad has received over 3,000 requests for help from Uganda since 2023, and that 162 Ugandans are tracked in Kenya and 123 in South Sudan, where they face continued violence and lack documentation. He recommended expanding the government-assisted refugee partnership with Rainbow Railroad to include a dedicated allocation for Ugandan LGBTQI+ refugees in Kenya and South Sudan, expanding funding for Canada’s LGBTQI+ international assistance program, and establishing a standing rapid response mechanism for sudden anti-LGBTQI+ crackdowns across all Canadian missions.

Rabab Al-Khatib added that the needs far exceed the 250-plus resettlement spots currently available through Rainbow Railroad’s partnership with Canada, and that the government should capitalize on civil society’s verification work to expedite processing. She emphasized that resettlement must be accompanied by specialized integration support for trauma-affected LGBTQI+ refugees. She disagreed with any suggestion that existing mechanisms are sufficient, arguing that more spots and resources are urgently needed.

The committee heard no procedural debate, motions or votes during the meeting.

AI-generated summary — may contain errors; verify against the official evidence.

Witnesses · 5

Paul Kanyamu

Registered Nursing Assistant, As an Individual

Opening remarks

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…

Full testimony ↗

Nicholas Opiyo

Founder and Former Executive Director, Chapter Four Uganda, As an Individual

Opening remarks

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…

Hassan Shire

Executive Director, East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project, DefendDefenders

Opening remarks

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…

Full testimony ↗

Subcommittee on International Human Rights

Summary

Witnesses · 5