{"id":1073,"date":"2010-02-24T15:29:32","date_gmt":"2010-02-24T15:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/?p=1073"},"modified":"2012-02-03T08:58:26","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T08:58:26","slug":"someone-needs-to-re-read-his-scout-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/?p=1073","title":{"rendered":"Someone Needs to Re-read His Scout Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:263,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/ugandascouts.org&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260415113817\\\/https:\\\/\\\/ugandascouts.org\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-18 07:32:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-18 07:32:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:503},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:264,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/ugandascouts.org\\\/about_scouting\\\/promise_law.php&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:265,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/ugandascouts.org\\\/about_scouting\\\/mission_vision.php&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:144,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.scout.org&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.scout.org\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I was looking at the Scout Association\u2019s website this morning and an article on the front page caught my eye. It seems that National Chairman of <a href=\"http:\/\/ugandascouts.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Ugandan Scout Association<\/a> David Bahati, who is a member of the Ugandan Parliament, is the author of a Private Members Bill which calls for the death sentence for repeat practicing of homosexuality.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The UK Scout Association has issued this statement &#8211;<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h4>Statement on Ugandan Private Members Bill<\/h4>\n<p><strong>23\/02\/2010<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In mid-January, Headquarters became aware of a Private Members Bill being tabled in the Ugandan Parliament by David Bahati MP, who is also the National Chairman of The Ugandan Scout Association.<\/p>\n<p>We noted that the legislation being proposed appeared incompatible with our understanding of Scouting\u2019s values and principles. Our immediate response was to raise the matter directly with the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM) who have responsibility for coordinating Scouting on a global level.<\/p>\n<p>Following these representations, and progress thus far, we are now issuing a formal statement that details the latest position in the development of this issue:<\/p>\n<h5>Statement<\/h5>\n<p>Since the mid-1990s, The Scout Association has been clear and unequivocal in our equal opportunities policy and practice especially regarding sexual orientation, as befitting our role in contemporary society.<\/p>\n<p>We are recently aware that the Ugandan Parliament has received a Bill that calls for the death sentence for repeat practicing of homosexuality. This Bill is presented by a Ugandan MP (David Bahati) who is also currently the National Chairman of the Uganda Scout Association. In terms of our own policies and understandings, we find the Bill not only discriminatory and contrary to the sanctity of life, but also completely incompatible with our interpretation of the values of our worldwide Scouting Movement.<\/p>\n<p>We have already drawn our grave concerns on this to the attention of the Secretary General of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement (WOSM), and we are subsequently aware that the issues are now subject both to WOSM\u2019s direct engagement with the Chief Scout of Uganda (Mrs Maggie Kigozi) and to ongoing global consideration by members of the World Scout Committee.<\/p>\n<p>We hope that the bilateral and very positive educational and solidarity projects that have been fostered for many years between Scout Groups in the UK and Scout Groups in Uganda on such matters as health and community development will not be prejudiced or compromised by this situation; we await the formal and public response from the Scout Association of Uganda and from WOSM, whereupon we will review our position.<\/p>\n<p>Alan Craft, Chair of Trustees,<\/p>\n<p>Derek Twine, Chief Executive<\/p>\n<p>23 February 2010<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now two things come to mind. First of all he needs to remember the forth part of the <a href=\"http:\/\/ugandascouts.org\/about_scouting\/promise_law.php\" target=\"_blank\">Ugandan Scout Law<\/a> &#8211;<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"text-align: justify;\"><p>4. A Scout is a friend to all and a brother to every other Scout.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">His bill is hardly friendly is it?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Second, the Ugandan Scouts need to drop this nasty piece of work as soon as possible. Again on the <a href=\"http:\/\/ugandascouts.org\/about_scouting\/mission_vision.php\" target=\"_blank\">Mission page<\/a> of their website it states &#8211;<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"text-align: justify;\"><p><strong>The mission of Scouting <\/strong>is to contribute to the <strong>education of young people<\/strong>, through a value system based on the <strong>Scout Promise and Law<\/strong>, <em>to help <strong>build a better world<\/strong><\/em> (my italics) where people are self-fulfilled as individuals and play a constructive role in society.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Hmmm, can\u2019t really build a better world if you want to go around executing a proportion of the population because of the way they are.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It\u2019s good to read that the SA have raised this with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scout.org\" target=\"_blank\">WOSM<\/a>, but it will be interesting to see how they respond and what, if any, action they take. This kind of attitude has no place in today\u2019s society and in Scouting and indeed never has done!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was looking at the Scout Association\u2019s website this morning and an article on the front page caught my eye. It seems that National Chairman of The Ugandan Scout Association David Bahati, who is a member of the Ugandan Parliament, is the author of a Private Members Bill which calls for the death sentence for &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/?p=1073\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Someone Needs to Re-read His Scout Law&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-rants","category-scouts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paTxP-hj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.nawbus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}