Human rights in Uganda
Since various rebel groups started fighting the Government of President Yoweri Museveni in August 1986, about 2 million Ugandans were displaced[3] and tens of thousands killed.
[5][6] The past conflict in the north of the country decimated the economy, retarded the development of affected areas and led to numerous gross human rights violations.
These violations centered upon the poor emergency provision provided to Internally Displaced Persons fleeing their homes to avoid LRA.
In the twelve years since the signing of hostilities agreement[7] many of those displaced persons have returned to their homes and a rehabilitation and redevelopment program is underway.
[9][10][11] In 2010, community opposition against plans to build the Uganda Oil Refinery led to repression against environmental activists.
[15] Ronald Reagan Okumu and Michael Nyeko Ocula are from the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the movement believed to pose the greatest threat to the reelection of President Yoweri Museveni in 2006.
Kyagulanyi filed a legal challenge with the supreme Court but on 22 February, withdrew claiming that the judges were biased.
[23] On the 24th day of January 2012 Issac Kasamani, a photo journalist alleged in a newspaper report that he had been shot at by a police officer whilst covering an opposition rally.
James Baba expressed concern over the standards of reporting surrounding the incident and announced his intention to look closely at media regulation.
In November 2012, John Ssegawa, co-director of the critical State of the Nation play reported that Uganda's Media Council had decided to ban further showings.
[29] The international community was greatly opposed to the introduction of this bill and expressed concerns about the fact that it may become law, indeed U.S. President Barack Obama called it 'odious'.
He was however at pains to point out that the provision for death penalty had been decided upon as unnecessary and removed from the bill at committee stage in the 8th parliament.
[33] Following the tightening of the bill several western industrial nations, among others Sweden, the United States and the Netherlands have suspended their aid to Uganda.
[34] "On 14 June [2003] [Violent Crime Crack Unit Green] officers arrested Nsangi Murisidi, aged 29, on suspicion that he had facilitated friends to commit robbery and for alleged possession of a gun.
On 18 June the lawyer representing the family received confirmation of his death in custody while at the VCCU headquarters at Kireka, a suburb of Kampala.
[18] On 28 Dec 2021, a PEN Pinter Prize International Writer award winning novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was arrested over allegations of being a critic of President Yoweri Museveni and his son.
[47] The article further asserts that no person shall experience discrimination because of their sex, race, ethnicity, disability, tribe, religion, socio-economic standing, or political affiliation.
[49] That being said, the Varieties of Democracy public survey data regarding women's civil liberties - an aggregation of the data of freedom of domestic movement, from forced labor, of property rights, and access to justice - shows that between the years 1986 and 2019, the Uganda public believed the majority of women in the country receive a medium to high level of these liberties.
[52] For example, reports consider married couples to be co-owners of the land, solely the men of the households are predominantly listed in the ownership documents.
[56] During the creation of the Ugandan Constitution, the cultural practice of bride price was debated, with the Constituent Assembly ruling against its abolition.
[57] In 2015, though, the Ugandan Supreme Court ruled it illegal for a groom to ask for a refund of the bride price in the case of the dissolution of marriage.
[59] It has been reported that both sides of the insurgency, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF), committed acts of sexual and gender based violence.
[60] During this insurgency period, women are thought to have participated in sexual acts with LRA and UPDF soldiers as a survival technique.
[53] The 2016 Uganda Police Force's crime report noted that cases investigating gender-based violence in the country rose by 4% from the previous year.
[53] A program through GBV has partnered with United Nations members to improve gender-based violence in the regions of Busoga and Karamoja.
Instances of child labor have also been observed in the mining industry (brick making and charcoal production) and in the services sector.
[citation needed] In 2020, in Kampala, the impact caused by COVID-19 and the closure of schools pushed many children into exploitive child labor which is also fueled by inadequate government assistance.
