2. the national human rights institution mandate UGANDA HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION TACKLING THE ANTI-HOMOSEXUALITY BILL One of the most controversial pieces of legislation to come before the Ugandan Parliament in recent years is the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The bill, introduced as a private member’s bill on 14 October 2009, increases the penalty for homosexual acts to life imprisonment in certain cases. It also criminalizes the promotion of homosexuality, including publishing of most material and views on homosexuality as well as the failure to report known homo­ sexual activities. The bill immediately sparked off protests especially from the international community, while it acquired support from many Ugandans including some religious leaders, based on tradition, religion and moral values. The Uganda Human Rights Commission, as part of its mandate to analyse and review bills before Parliament to ensure compliance with human rights standards, subjected the bill to a detailed analysis, drawing from human rights standards set out in the Ugandan ­Constitution, treaties and the practice of relevant United Nations human rights bodies. The conclusion, based entirely on legal arguments, was that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill ­contradicted international human rights standards, including the right to privacy, e ­ quality and non-discrimination, as well as the freedoms of speech, expression, association and assembly. The 12th Annual Report 2009 of the Ugandan Human Rights Commission ­presented the analysis. Despite the advocacy efforts of the Uganda Human Rights Commission and other national and international actors, the President of Uganda promulgated the bill in slightly amended form in February 2014, representing a grave setback for the rights, personal security and wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons in Uganda. 3. Ideally, in addition to scrutinizing all proposed bills, a NHRI should scrutinize all new administrative regulations and major policy documents. Whereas it will normally be feasible for a NHRI to consider all new bills and possible to establish procedures securing that this takes place, administrative regulations and policies come into being in a much less formalized manner than legislation, making it more difficult to establish procedures ensuring continuous monitoring of all new administrative regulations. In addition, the sheer volume of administrative regulations can make it difficult for a NHRI to have the capacity to go through all new and proposed administrative regulations – of which many will probably be irrelevant from a human rights perspective in any case. 41