Ugandan civil society groups marked international Human Rights Day on Thursday by calling for the withdrawal of what they call the “discriminative and oppressive” Anti-Homosexuality Bill from the country’s Parliament.

The Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, which represents nearly 20 Ugandan advocacy groups, says the bill is “an unprecedented threat” to the fundamental human rights of Ugandans.

“Uganda today stands at a crossroads,” the coalition adds. “We can either turn further towards an agenda of divisionism and discrimination, and pay the costs in terms of internal suppression of our own citizens coupled with international isolation and marginalization, or we can embrace diversity, human rights and constitutionalism.”

The bill, proposed by David Bahati, the member of Parliament for the Ndorwa West constituency, provides for life imprisonment for any Ugandan who, whether inside or outside the country, engages in what the bill calls “same gender sexual activity.” It also prescribes life sentences for partners in same-sex marriages.

If an offender is a person living with HIV, a person with authority over a sexual partner, or if the partner is under 18, the bill provides for the death penalty. An “attempt to commit homosexuality” or “aiding and abetting” the crime can be punished with seven years’ imprisonment, and “promotion of homosexuality” can result in a jail sentence of five to seven years.

The Civil Society Coalition says in its statement that the bill, “while claiming to protect the African traditional family… fails to recognise the rich diversity of those family structures in our multiple traditions. By mounting an attack on the most fundamental principle of the human rights framework… it is also mounting an attack on some of the most cherished dimensions of African culture.”

Read the coalition’s Human Rights Day statement