Contesting Norms and Challenging Order: Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 and the Geopolitics of LGBTIQ+ Human Rights
Title Contesting Norms and Challenging Order: Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 and the Geopolitics of LGBTIQ+ Human Rights
Guest : Haley McEwen (University of Gothenburg)
Moderator : Marième N'Diaye (CNRS, LAM)
Abstract :
Uganda’s adoption of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023 sparked intense debate among both domestic and international actors over LGBTIQ+ human rights. This seminar explores how opposition to LGBTIQ+ rights has become a key arena for challenging the liberal international order, questioning the universality of human rights norms as measures of state legitimacy. Drawing on critical IR theories of norm violation, the discussion examines responses from external actors as well as defenses by Ugandan state actors. The seminar will highlight how anti-LGBTIQ+ politics in Uganda, reflecting broader global trends, has emerged as a focal point for political critique of “the West” and the current international system.
Seminar organized with the seminar "féminismes et antiféminismes africains et afro-diasporiques"
Date : Thursday 7 of may 2026, 14:00-16:00 (CEST).
Place, room : Sciences Po Bordeaux, salle Touchard
Format : hybride (lien Zoom envoyé la veille)
Organization committee :
Axe Afrique (WP5) :
- David Ambrosetti (Sciences Po Bordeaux/LAM),
- Raphaëlle Chevrillon-Guibert (IRD),
- Rozenn Guérois (Inalco),
- Margot Herman (Inalco),
- Marième N’Diaye (Sciences Po Bordeaux/LAM),
- Marianne Morange (Inalco),
- Marc-Antoine Pérouse de Montclos (IRD),
- Avec Zoé Quétu, postdoctorante, programme DÉCRIPT.
LAM :
- Emmanuelle DAVID (post-doctorante chaire DianaT)
- Pamela OHENE NYAKO (post-doctorante FNS)
- Sara PANATA (CR CNRS LAM)