Muslim countries are notorious for their limited conception of human rights. But conservative Christian Uganda is now about to put in a very Old Testament approach to homosexuality into law, possibly including a death penalty.

Humans rights agreements are no barrier.

In a interview with the Guardian, James Nsaba Buturo, the minister of state for ethics and integrity, said the government was determined to pass the legislation, ideally before the end of 2009, even if meant withdrawing from international treaties and conventions such as the UN’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and foregoing donor funding.

“We are talking about anal sex. Not even animals do that,” Butoro said, adding that he was personally caring for six “former homosexuals” who had been traumatised by the experience. “We believe there are limits to human rights.”

I guess all this is understandable, if you actually take the sort of Christian morality they believe in seriously.

It’s also interesting how some Ugandans defend such laws in terms of the democratic will of the people. And I have no doubt that this is so. It’s not that hard to come up with examples where secular and democratic politics come into conflict.