Report shows an increase of Human Rights violations in Uganda

By Ben Musanje

13^th June 2022

There was an increase of 9 percent cases of human rights violations in the country to at least 3,624 complaints in 2021 from 549 complaints in 2020 as registered by the Uganda Human Rights Commission -UHRC.

This is in the 24th Annual Report on the State Human Rights and Freedoms in Uganda in 2021 released today in Kampala by UHRC.

The report attributes to these cases increment to the enforcement of the COVID-19 standard operating procedures by law enforcement and security agencies which included arrests of people who were alleged to violated the 7pm-5am curfew hours.

Ruth Ssekindi, the UHRC Director Monitoring and Inspection while presenting statistics in the report says that the alleged human rights violations that rose from clashes between security agencies and the public whilst restricting public gatherings during the 2021 general elections and conducting of mobile complaints handling clinics also contributed to the increase in of these cases.

She says that out of the 3,624 number of complaints received by UHRC, 602 were registered as raising alleged human rights violations while Soroti Regional Office registered the highest number of complaints with 129 cases approximately 21 percent from the district of Bulambuli, Bududa, Namisindwa, Amorata and Serere followed by the Central Region with 88complaints (17percent).

Mariam Wangadya, UHRC Chairperson mentions Police to have topped the list of institutions recorded with the most complaints of human rights violations followed by the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces –UPDF and Uganda Prison Services.