Debate #5: Conditioning Aid on Rights for SOGI/LGBTQ Populations (Molly!)
Background: On February 24th, 2014, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), also known as the ‘kill-the-gays bill,’ a modified version of a tabled 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill, sentencing those convicted of homosexuality to life imprisonment and requiring “citizens to report anyone suspected of being gay” (see the Economist editorial). After Museveni signed the AHA, Norway, the Netherlands, and Denmark cut aid to Uganda; Sweden and the United States redirected aid from the Ugandan government to civil society and NGOs; and the World Bank postponed a $90 million loan to Uganda’s health service sector (see Saltnes, 11 and Economist). Conditional and values-based aid has been a popular tactic by states and international organizations such as the World Bank and the IMF for decades (see Ramcharan, 3). Yet the effectiveness and morality have also been hotly contested. Within the context of Uganda’s 2014 AHA, our “debate” seeks to highlight four perspectives on conditioning aid based on the rights provided to particular sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI)/LGBTQ populations and these perspectives’ arguments for and/or against the practice.
For a jumping-off point on the topic, see: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/jul/09/lgbt-aid-development-rights
Economist Editorial: https://www.economist.com/leaders/2014/04/12/right-cause-wrong-battle
Saltnes: https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/78520/Saltnes%2B%25282020%2529%2BGlobus%2BWP%2B2%2B2020.pdf?sequence=2
Ramcharan: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2002/wp02183.pdf
I will be looking at the critical theory and ground-up/constructivist perspectives on this issue.
Critical Theory Perspective
LGBTQ/SOGI rights-conditional aid is a neocolonial and ineffective practice.
Conditional aid in Uganda is part of the Global North targeting of Global South countries using conditional aid, which facilitate a North-South binary
Discriminatorily enacted, Uganda represents how conditional aid removes necessary funding from Global South countries, causing them to cut spending or borrow more, thus perpetuating their subordinate and dependent international status
Conditional aid allows Global North states to impose their rights regime on the Global South
Conditional aid is demeaning to the states that receive it
Course Reading Connections
(Lynn Welchman) “Human Rights Law and Politics: A reflection on human rights work in the Middle East and North Africa”: Welchman also notes that within Tunisia, for example, human rights are often viewed by the left as bourgeoisie and Western, thus connecting critical theory concerns to other states and values within these states.
Supplementary Reading Connections
Economist Leaders: Discusses the World Bank’s unfair targeting of Global South states in its LGBTQ/SOGI conditional aid sanctions. (Clare Byarugaba and Maria E. Burnett) Uganda’s Horrific Anti-LGBTIQ+ Bill Returns: The Stakes Are Higher Than Ever: Describes the extent to which Uganda is reliant upon foreign aid. (Elias Biryabarema and Philippa Croome) Uganda told anti-gay bill poses financial risk: Highlights how conditional aid will force Uganda to borrow more. (Stephen Brown) Visibility or Impact? International Efforts to Defend LGBTQI+ Rights in Africa: Provides an overview of various critical theory perspectives on the subject, especially arguments that conditional aid is discriminatory, facilitates Global North economic and cultural domination in the Global South, and frames the Global South as backwards.
Ground-Up Constructivist Perspective
CON ARGUMENT: Conditional aid is harmful and ineffective.
Conditional aid worsens the socioeconomic status of LGBTQ peoples and citizens within the state receiving aid
Conditional aid prevents necessary services for individuals in the aid-receiving state (especially LGBTQ individuals)
The removal of services and money from individuals prevents their ability to be normative influencers
PRO ARGUMENT: Conditional aid can be effective when enacted through dialogue with and in support of civil society.
Civil society can inform the course of conditional aid
Conditional aid can divert funds to groups and sectors that may facilitate LGBTQ/SOGI rights
Course Reading Connections
(Rodríguez-Garavito) “Foreword to Human Rights at the Intersections": Highlights that we do not need to focus on the West/North, but the active role of local subjects in forming and practicing human rights. Human rights are a collaborative process. (Chase) "An Anti-Foundational Understanding of Human Rights": Rights are created from the bottom-up, through communication and interaction. Thinking of human rights as property of global elites underplays the capacity of individuals and the social and cultural dynamics that create and shape human rights. As such, the cultural relativist argument priviledges forces that threaten cultural diversity and takes an uncritical stance to states that violate human rights. (Rodríguez-Garavito) “Human Rights 2030: Existential Challenges and a New Paradigm for the Field”: Expresses the necessity of collaboration in human rights development and protection. (Quataert) “The New Moral Order”: Human rights are formed through historical struggles from below. Human rights thought must be understood concretely through specific historical movements that, reinforced by their transnational and international linkages, confront the power and privilege working against them.
(Chase) "Human rights contestations: sexual orientation and gender identity": Northern states are unlikely to be norm entrepreneurs in Global South states. (Javier Corrales) "LGBT Rights and Representation in Latin America and the Caribbean": Underscores how important institutional funding and civil society connections are to advancing LGBTQ/SOGI rights.
Supplementary Reading Connections
(Johanne Døhlie Saltnes) "To Sanction or Not to Sanction? Normative Dilemmas in the Promotion of LGBTI Human Rights": Argues that linking conditional aid to LGBTQ/SOGI communities increases antagonism against them. Additionally, Saltnes notes that by removing funding from aid-dependent states, conditional aid in turn removes funding from individuals, social groups, and essential services (including those fighting against HIV/AIDS). Saltnes also highlights how civil society and grassroots movements are important for informing states about the proper course of action for conditional aid. Conditional aid can in turn divert funding to these groups.