Uganda blasted over late submission of reports
Jun 07, 2009
The Government has been criticised for its failure to submit reports on the implementation of the international human rights treaties.
By Josephine Maseruka
The Government has been criticised for its failure to submit reports on the implementation of the international human rights treaties.
Participants at a two-day workshop on human rights and state reporting at the Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala on Thursday were told that some reports had delayed for more than 16 years.
Others like the report to the committee on economic, social and cultural rights, had never been submitted.
Medie Sozzi Kaggwa, the chairman of the Uganda Human Rights Commission, said several of the treaty bodies had cited the delay as a hindrance to their work.
The bodies include the committee on the elimination of racial discrimination, the committee on the rights of a child and the committee against torture.
He added that the committee against torture had to consider Uganda’s initial report that was submitted in May 2005.
It recommended that the Government takes measures to prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment and adopt a definition of torture.
The Government had to also eliminate impunity for alleged perpetrators of acts of torture, abolish the use of unauthorised places of detention, strengthen and implement the decisions of the commission regarding compensation to victims of torture and prosecution of perpetrators.
The implementation of the recommendations should have been included in the second report which was supposed to be considered by June 25, 2008, Kaggwa said.
Uganda has no legislation on torture and the Attorney General still has to pay over sh1b to people whose rights were abused by government agents, especially the armed forces, he added.
Opening the workshop, state minister for foreign affairs Okello Oryem re-echoed the Government’s commitment to observing human rights.
He said reporting to UN treaty bodies and the African human rights reporting system were for self-evaluation and a move in the right direction.
The participants wondered if the Government was ratifying the treaties for public relations and donor funding.
They also wondered why the justice ministry could advise Parliament to make legislations, which are in conformity with the UN treaties before implementing the recommendations of the treaty bodies.
The participants called for the establishment of a reporting secretariat to spearhead the Government’s reporting process.
Kaggwa noted that poor coordination affected the quality of the reports presented.
He recommended that the coordination mechanism be strengthened.
The Government has been criticised for its failure to submit reports on the implementation of the international human rights treaties.
Participants at a two-day workshop on human rights and state reporting at the Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala on Thursday were told that some reports had delayed for more than 16 years.
Others like the report to the committee on economic, social and cultural rights, had never been submitted.
Medie Sozzi Kaggwa, the chairman of the Uganda Human Rights Commission, said several of the treaty bodies had cited the delay as a hindrance to their work.
The bodies include the committee on the elimination of racial discrimination, the committee on the rights of a child and the committee against torture.
He added that the committee against torture had to consider Uganda’s initial report that was submitted in May 2005.
It recommended that the Government takes measures to prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment and adopt a definition of torture.
The Government had to also eliminate impunity for alleged perpetrators of acts of torture, abolish the use of unauthorised places of detention, strengthen and implement the decisions of the commission regarding compensation to victims of torture and prosecution of perpetrators.
The implementation of the recommendations should have been included in the second report which was supposed to be considered by June 25, 2008, Kaggwa said.
Uganda has no legislation on torture and the Attorney General still has to pay over sh1b to people whose rights were abused by government agents, especially the armed forces, he added.
Opening the workshop, state minister for foreign affairs Okello Oryem re-echoed the Government’s commitment to observing human rights.
He said reporting to UN treaty bodies and the African human rights reporting system were for self-evaluation and a move in the right direction.
The participants wondered if the Government was ratifying the treaties for public relations and donor funding.
They also wondered why the justice ministry could advise Parliament to make legislations, which are in conformity with the UN treaties before implementing the recommendations of the treaty bodies.
The participants called for the establishment of a reporting secretariat to spearhead the Government’s reporting process.
Kaggwa noted that poor coordination affected the quality of the reports presented.
He recommended that the coordination mechanism be strengthened.