Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera is the founder and executive director of Freedom and Roam Uganda, a leading LGBT rights organization. 

 

In January, her colleague David Kato was murdered after the Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone published a “gay list” and called for the people named in the list to be hanged. Nabagesera’s name also appears on the list. 

 

Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland Programme Director of Amnesty International said:

 

"Kasha Nabagesera is a courageous woman and we are delighted to bring her to Belfast. In the face of ongoing threats and attacks for her work, she has continued to speak out on behalf of Uganda’s LGBT community. She constantly has to shift from house to house, never staying too long in the same place, yet her voice for human rights in Uganda has never been dimmed.

 

"In recent years human Amnesty International has documented numerous cases of discrimination, arbitrary arrests, unlawful detention, torture and other ill-treatment on the basis of sexual orientation in Uganda, and against activists exposing violations against the LGBT community. Kasha is here to tell people in Northern Ireland the real stories behind our reports and to explain how people here can support gay people in Uganda."

 

Ms Nabagesera is the winner of the prestigious 2011 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. The honour is designed to publicise the recipient’s work and help protect them from the dangers they face.

 

The Amnesty Pride Lecture, "The struggle for gay rights in Uganda", will take place at 7:15pm on Thursday 25 August in the Black Box, Hill Street in Belfast, with a lecture followed by a question and answer session hosted by William Crawley.