CAT/C/56/D/562/2013
complainant’s claim that he was arrested, detained and tortured by the Ugandan authorities
in August 2007. To support that affirmation, the complainant provided only a medical
report, which was illegible, and the above-mentioned release bond. Moreover, the Refugee
Protection Division official found that the medical report indicated that the complainant
was attacked by anti-gay protestors, not by the police. In addition, the State party argues
that the complainant did not submit any recent documents to substantiate his allegation that
he is currently at risk of being arrested and tortured by the Ugandan authorities. The most
recent documents he submitted are dated within a month of the decision rejecting his claim
for refugee protection in October 2012. The complainant did not provide even a recent
letter from his family or from friends living in Uganda to attest to a real and future risk.
5.4
Regarding the new documentation submitted by the complainant before the
Committee (see para. 2.8 above), the State party notes that the same documentation was
also submitted in the pre-removal risk assessment application dated 11 March 2014, and
was considered by the domestic authorities. The assessment officer found that those
documents should be given little weight because they were copies rather than originals,
contained critical typographical errors and were all dated within one month of the
complainant’s receipt of his negative Refugee Protection Division decision on 19 October
2012. The complainant did not submit any more recent documents either in his pre-removal
risk assessment application or to the Committee.
5.5
The State party submits that it is not plausible that the Ugandan authorities would be
more interested in the complainant now than when he was still living in Uganda, and that if
they were really concerned about him, they would not have released him after only a few
days of detention in 2007, and would not have allowed him to leave the country in 2008.
The complainant has not explained why the Ugandan authorities suddenly started actively
looking for him at the end of October 2012, two years after he had left the country and five
years after he was allegedly arrested and released by the police in Kampala. The State party
considers that it is simply not believable that the Ugandan authorities would continue to
have an interest in him some five years after his initial arrest and release. Moreover, the
complainant waited four months to make his claim for protection in Canada, a delay which
is not compatible with a genuine fear of serious harm in another country.
5.6
The State party refers to the significant discrepancies between the story told by the
complainant at his port of entry interview and his testimony at the Refugee Protection
Division hearing and on his personal information form. For instance, in the interview at the
port of entry, the complainant explained that his wife had left him because he had no
money. However, on his form and at the hearing, the complainant explained that his wife
left him when she became aware of his homosexuality. Moreover, in his port of entry
interview, the complainant claimed that a newspaper had published pictures of him and
other gay individuals in Kampala. However, when questioned at the hearing as to why he
had not disclosed the pictures to the Division, he claimed that his picture was not published
in the newspaper, and he could not offer any credible explanation as to why he had said so
at the interview.
5.7
The State party considers that, while the situation of lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and intersex persons in Uganda is problematic and has worsened as a result of
the new Anti-Homosexuality Act, although there have been arrests in the past under section
145 of the Penal Code for homosexual acts in Uganda, thus far, there have been no reported
cases of conviction or prosecution under the new Law. 12 The State party submits that the
12
The State party cites the United States Department of State, “Uganda 2013 Human Rights Report”,
available at www.state.gov/documents/organization/220383.pdf, and Human Rights Watch, Uganda:
Anti-Homosexuality Act’s Heavy Toll, available at www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/14/uganda-anti-
7