Prime
Lawyers demand appointment of rights commission chairperson
This file photo taken in May 2013 shows Policemen arresting a journalist in Kampala. Human Rights Network for Journalists and local journalists had organised a demonstration protesting the closure of the Daily Monitor and Red Pepper newspapers, a move perceived by experts as a violation of human rights. PHOTO/FILE/MORGAN MBABAZI.
What you need to know:
- The Uganda Human Rights Commission [UHRC] is a body established in the Constitution clothed with the core mandate of investigating human rights violations and awarding compensation to the victims.
Lawyers have asked President Museveni to urgently appoint a substantive chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) to resolve the escalating rights violations during the political season.
The Uganda Law Society (ULS) president, Ms Pheona Wall Nabasa, said there is need for increased protection of human rights defenders because Uganda is signatory to the international conventions that obligate nations to protect human rights defenders.
“The fact that we do not have the UHRC chairman is of great concern to the ULS. We cannot have an election process where we do not have a human rights commission chairman and it has been almost nine months now and as we speak, there is a huge backlog,” Ms Nabasa said at the commemoration of the International Human Rights Defenders’ Day in Kampala last Friday.
She said the people who require resolutions from the human rights tribunal are not getting any justice.
Ms Nabasa said the backlog is building up in the Judiciary and other arms of government. She added that the ULS’ cardinal role is to defend human rights and advise government and the public on matters of rule of law and good governance.
The UHRC is a body established in the Constitution clothed with the core mandate of investigating human rights violations and awarding compensation to the victims.
Deceased.The former chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission, Med Kaggwa. PHOTO/FILE/ABUBAKER LUBOWA.
Former UHRC chairperson Med Kaggwa passed away in November 2019. In a December 7 petition to the Attorney General, Mr Erias Luyimbazi Nalukoola, a lawyer asked the government’s chief legal adviser to advise the President to appoint a substantive chairperson.
