Kampala, Uganda
The Ugandan Government has said it will not renew the mandate of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uganda wrote to OHCHR offices in Kampala on 3rd February indicating that it would not renew its mandate. In the letter, the government noted the progress it had made in the promotion and protection of human rights.
An overview of the special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, looks at the situation in Ukraine on 4th March, 2022. PICTYURE: Reuters/Denis Balibouse
The OHCHR was established in Uganda in 2006 with the initial mandate focused on the human rights situation in conflict-affected areas of northern and north-eastern Uganda. The government later renewed its mandate in 2009 and 2020, expanding it to cover the entire country and all human rights issues.
The letter indicated that Uganda would not also renew the mandate of OHCHR because of the prevailing peace in the country coupled with strong national human rights institutions and a vibrant civil society-with capacity to monitor the promotion and protection of human rights without the OHCHR
“The government will now continue its cooperation with the OHCHR Headquarters either directly or through its Permanent Mission in Geneva,” government said.
The refusal by the government to renew the OHCHR’s mandate comes at the time when Uganda is grappling with the increasing cases of human rights violations. Human Rights Watch’s annual report for 2022 found there had been a marked deterioration in Uganda’s human rights environment during the previous year following the 14th January, 2021, general elections that were marred by widespread abuses such as arbitrary arrests, the beating of opposition supporters and journalists plus the killing of peaceful protesters.
The United Nations committee against torture recently also raised concerns that torture and ill-treatment were frequently practiced, and called for investigations and prosecution of security officials accused of excessive use of force, violence and arbitrary detention.
Sight has learnt that the OHCHR was investigating the human rights violations that characterised the 2021 elections and the post-election period when government declared it wouldn’t renew its mandate. It’s not clear whether the government’s decision not to renew the mandate means an end to the investigations.
It is not the first time that the Ugandan Government has shut down institutions seen to be critical of it. In 2021, the government suspended the activities of several civil society organisations on grounds that they were subverting it. The affected organisations were known to be critical of the government’s brutal response to political dissent in the country.
In 2021, the government also suspended the activities of the Democratic Governance Facility, a multi-million donor facility that had been established by eight development partners of Uganda including Denmark, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the European Union in 2011.
DGF’s role was to provide financial and technical support to both the state and non-state actors in areas of democracy, human rights and rule of law.
The suspension of DGF paralysed the operations of many civil society organisations in Uganda that benefited directly from the fund, forcing many to close or abandon projects due to inadequate funds. While ordering the suspension of the DGF activities on 2nd January, 2021, President Yoweri Museveni said the fund was being used to subvert government under the guise of improving governance. The ban was later lifted but the funding of many of the organisations who previously received funds has never resumed.
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The shutdown of OHCHR office has been sharply criticised by religious and political leaders in Uganda as well as human rights activists.
Rev Dr Grace Lubaale, of the Anglican Church of the Resurrection in Bugolobi and Kyambogo University, told Sight that the presence of international institutions like OHCHR was a sign of a democratic nation and urged the government to reconsider its decision not to renew its mandate.
Similarly, Pastor Solomon Male, the executive director of Arising for Christ – a church accountability organisation in Uganda, said the ongoing shutdown of institutions that are critical of government, such as the OHCHR, were a sign that Uganda was going back to the “dark days” of the dictator Idi Amin. Amin ruled Uganda between 1971 and 1979 and under whose regime tens of thousands of people were killed.
Male cautioned people to be careful criticising President Museveni and his government.
Dr Livingston Sewanyana, founder of the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative in Uganda, argued that the decision not to renew the mandate of OHCHR would deprive Uganda of a critical player in the field of human rights promotion and protection.
Robert Kyagulanyi, leader of the main opposition political party in Uganda – the National Unity Platform, said he was not surprised that the government had decided to shut down the OHCHR office, stating that “in the face of growing international condemnations and isolation, tyrant Museveni has in the past responded by shutting down NGOs, Facebook and declaring international staff persona non-grata”.
