Byanyima: I’ve had enough of racism

Ms Winnie Byanyima, the head of a top United Nations agency, has said she has had enough of racist harassment in Switzerland, with the discriminative vice visiting her doorstep in Geneva often enough to cause her untold distress.

The executive director of the Geneva-based Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAIDS), said in a post on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, that she has had to endure racial profiling since taking residence in Geneva three years ago.

“I’ve had enough of racist harassment,” Ms Byanyima said in a post that was accompanied by a photo in which three white police officers are seen at what appears to be the private park she said she was allegedly harassed from.

“Security constantly targets me just for exercising in our park. Today, he called the cops on me who rudely stopped my workout. The cops treated me like an intruder in my own space,” she said.
Ms Byanyima said for three years she has lived in a building that shares a fence with a private park. Residents in the area take their workouts in the park.

But not all are equal it appears and this is not the first time Ms Byanyima   has complained about being racially profiled in the European country.

In June last year, Ms Byanyima took to Twitter to complain about the treatment she received when boarding a plane in Geneva, in the western part of the Swiss Confederation.

“I’m almost refused to board, all documents scrutinised over and over again, calls made…. I board last,” she tweeted.

At the time, she was heading to Canada for the 24th international Aids conference. She said at the time that hundreds of “people in the South have been denied visas and won’t attend”.

Ms Byanyima told Monitor in the morning yesterday that she was in a meeting and asked to speak later. She could not be readily accessed later while the UNAIDS was contacted by email for this story but had not responded by press time.

The alleged racist harassment of Ms Byanyima, also the wife of Opposition stalwart Dr Kizza Besigye of the Opposition party, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), almost received no attention from the government and the global community.

More than 24 hours after the post, the Permanent Mission to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva was not aware of it, while in Kampala, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not released a statement by press time.

Ambassador Arthur Sewankambo Kafeero, whose docket directly covers the UN agencies, said he was away on leave and referred this newspaper to the office in Geneva.
However, Ambassador Marcel Robert Tibaleka, who heads the Geneva office, did not respond to our queries on the matter.

The State minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Henry Okello Oryem, said he was away in Jordan but that his office had not been notified of the matter.

“She has not brought this matter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs [MOFA] as something she wishes MOFA  to handle through diplomatic channels. Maybe she is handling it personally or through the organisation she works for. So I cannot comment,” Mr Oryem told Monitor.

Ambassador Harold Acemah described Ms Byanyima’s alleged treatment as “disgusting, indefensible, outrageous, scandalous and totally unacceptable”. 

“I am disappointed and surprised to note that MOFA has not taken appropriate action through normal diplomatic channels,” said Acemah, a retired career diplomat.

He said Ms Byanyima “deserves and is entitled to support from MOFA to stop this indefensible and unacceptable harassment”.

He added: “Hon Winnie Byanyima is a senior UN official, but [she] remains a citizen of Uganda who is entitled to consular protection and services accorded by Mofa and Uganda’s Diplomatic Missions abroad.” 

Ms Byanyima’s claim of repeated racist treatment, with no decisive diplomatic response from MOFA, has drwan criticism from Ugandans.

“If an international human rights crusader gets treated this way for their skin colour, imagine what happens to the ordinary folks,” said Mr Moses Amone, an X user on Ms Byanyima’s post.

A passionate and longstanding champion of social justice and gender equality, Ms Byanyima leads the UN’s efforts to end HIV/Aids by 2030. 

Before joining UNAIDS, she served as the executive director of Oxfam International, a confederation of more than a dozen civil society organisations working to empower people to create a future that is secure, just and free from poverty.