Faridah N Kulumba
Africa-Press – Uganda. Last week the High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk announced that the United Nations Human Rights office in Uganda has been closed after the Ugandan government refused to renew an agreement that allowed the office to operate.
On the 5th of this month, the UN rights office in Kampala officially ceased its operations, as stated in a press release from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva.
Mr. Türk expressed his regret, acknowledging the 18 years of collaboration with civil society and various stakeholders in Uganda, as well as engaging with State institutions to promote and protect the human rights of all Ugandans.
At the beginning of February 2023, the government of Uganda announced that it will not renew the mandate of the United Nations human rights offices in the country, arguing that Uganda is capable of promoting and protecting human rights.
Prior to the Kampala office’s closure, sub-offices in Gulu and Moroto had already shut down on June 30 and July 31, 2023, respectively. As of March 2023, OHCHR Uganda employed 45 staff, including 36 nationals and 9 international members.
In July 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee issued its findings on Brazil, Burundi, Colombia, Cyprus, Lesotho, the State of Palestine, and Uganda, which contain the Committee’s main concerns and recommendations on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Committee expressed deep concern about the arbitrary arrest and detention of political opponents, journalists, lawyers, and human rights defenders, also the discrimination and persecution based on sexual orientation and gender identity, including the enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in May 2023.
Refusal to terminate the mandate
At the beginning of this year, Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) explaining that due to the prevailing peace throughout the country, coupled with strong national human rights institutions and a vibrant civil society with the capacity to monitor, promote and protect human rights in Uganda, the government will not renew the mandate of the offices beyond the current term.
Uganda’s decision to terminate the mandate of human rights offices drew strong opposition from human rights activists and civil society, who view it as a reflection of the government’s response to the increasing scrutiny over abuses such as torture, forced disappearances, abductions, detentions without trial, and re-arrests of persons legally released by the courts.
The human rights activists in Uganda do not believe that the government of Uganda is capable of upholding human rights issues without the OHCHR intervention. They accused the government of playing hide and seek whenever renewal of the mandate came up.
The UN rights commission also said that the Uganda Human Rights Commission, their long-standing partner in the protection and promotion of human rights in the country, is chronically underfunded and understaffed, and reports of political interference in its mandate undermine its legitimacy. independence, and impartiality.
The agency had engaged in discussions with the government to urge a reconsideration of the decision to close its activities in Uganda. However, the President of Uganda Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who first commented on the matter in a press conference during his state visit to South Africa in March, said that the organization was deemed superfluous as another entity already performed the same duties.
According to President Museveni Uganda already has a constitutional body, the Uganda Human Rights Commission, responsible for protecting human rights and he believed that the existence of OHCHR had created confusion in Uganda, as people were not sure where to report their grievances.
UN concerns
Türk expressed his concern about the condition of human rights in Uganda ahead of the 2026 elections and warned against
retrogression from Uganda’s commitments under international human rights treaties. He urged the Government to ensure the national human rights body can function effectively and independently.
UN rights is also concerned about the increasingly hostile environment in which human rights defenders, civil society actors, and journalists are operating. the High Commissioner noted that most of the 54 NGOs that were arbitrarily suspended in August 2021 remain closed.
Another UN rights concern is the recently amended Computer Misuse law that may further erode free expression and also cautioned against a regression from Uganda’s obligations under international human rights treaties it has accepted thus urging the Government to guarantee the effective and independent functioning of the national human rights body, which serves as the primary entity responsible for overseeing human rights in Uganda.
Over the years, President Museveni’s government has been criticized by the opposition, human rights activists, and the UN for human rights violations including torture, illegal detentions, and extrajudicial killings of opponents and critics.
In November 2022, the United Nations Committee on Human Rights against Torture pinned the government of Uganda on human rights abuses. This followed the UN Committee Experts summoning the State’s human rights institutions and questioning them about unauthorized places of detention (safehouses) and inaction in prosecuting several torture cases.
The Committee’s concern was the report that revealed that torture and ill-treatment continued to be frequently practiced in Uganda and that reports indicated excessive use of force within the context of Covid-19 emergency measures.
Another concern is the reported non-implementation of the Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Regulations of 2017 by security agencies, including the Uganda Police Force. And that the victims have limited access to justice due to prosecutors and judges lacking sufficient evidence to prosecute cases of torture.
OHCHR presence in Uganda
The OHCHR office in Uganda was established in 2005. According to the agreement signed, the OHCHR’s initial mandate was to focus only on human rights issues in conflict-plagued areas in north and northeastern Uganda.
In 2009, the organization’s presence in the country was extended to cover the entire country and all human rights issues. Since then the OHCHR has been discussing with Uganda about the modalities of a continued presence in the country.
The government of Uganda insists that the country is now peaceful and they have enough institutions that can handle human rights issues and that the closure of the U.N human rights office in the country will not affect the cooperation between the two parties and that they will continue to associate with officials through their headquarters or their permanent mission in Geneva.
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