The European Union claims to stand up for human rights, the rule of law, transparency in government and peaceful, democratic elections. Yet in recent years it has allowed one of its partners, Uganda, to repeatedly violate these ideals. In 2020 and 2021, President Yoweri Museveni’s government oversaw the most violent election cycle in Ugandan history. At least 54 people were killed during campaign season, more than any election season before. When the dust was settled, Museveni secured his sixth term and 35th year in power. In January 2021, Parliament passed the repressive 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act into law and was soon after embroiled in a series of corruption and embezzlement scandals. In July 2024, over 100 young people were arrested and charged for peacefully marching against corruption and wanton expenditures by the government – in what constitutional lawyers have condemned as a violation of their right to peaceful assembly. The EU has previously withheld funds for countries where human rights have been abused; suspending financial support for Niger following last year’s coup, and for Ethiopia in late 2020 amid the atrocities being committed by the government in the Tigray war. In 2013, it cancelled €13m of aid to Gambia over a lack of progress in human rights, in part because of a law against homosexuality. In each of these instances, the EU eventually resumed its flow of aid after apparently being satisfied that change was on the horizon.