Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera (known in some sources as Jacqueline Kasha) is a Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

n LGBT rights activist. She is the founder and executive director of an LGBT rights organisation called Freedom and Roam Uganda. She has publicly campaigned for an end to homophobia in Uganda, where homosexuality is illegal. In 2010, Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone

Rolling Stone (Uganda)

Rolling Stone was a weekly tabloid newspaper published in Kampala, Uganda. The paper published its first issue on August 23, 2010, under the direction of 22-year-old Giles Muhame and two classmates from Kampala's Makerere University...

published the photographs and names of people it claimed to be gay, under the headline "Hang Them". The names and photographs included those of Nabagesera and her colleague David Kato

David Kato

David Kato Kisule was a Ugandan teacher and LGBT rights activist, considered a father of Uganda's gay rights movement. He served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda...

.

In 2010, Nabagesera opened the only Ugandan bar for LGBT people; named Sappho Islands, the bar was situated in a suburb of Kampala

Kampala

Kampala is the largest city and capital of Uganda. The city is divided into five boroughs that oversee local planning: Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division and Lubaga Division. The city is coterminous with Kampala District.-History: of Buganda, had chosen...

. It closed in 2011.

In May 2011, it was announced that Nabagesera would be awarded the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders

Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders

The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, called also "the Nobel Prize for human rights", was created in 1993 to honour and protect individuals around the world who demonstrate exceptional courage in defending and promoting human rights...

. She received the award in Geneva on 13 October 2011. According to Michelle Kagari of Amnesty International

Amnesty International

Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

, the award "recognises [Nabagesera's] tremendous courage in the face of discrimination and violence against LGBT people in Uganda. Her passion to promote equality and her tireless work to end a despicable climate of fear is an inspiration to LGBT activists the world over ..."

External links

• Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera speaking at the ICM 2011, Amnesty International's YouTube Channel