POLITICS | FDC | GOVERNMENT | HUMAN RIGHTS 

Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party deputy spokesperson John Kikonyogo has appealed to the government to respect the human rights of all Ugandans.

Many people's rights, Kikonyogo says, have continued to be violated even though "we have bodies to protect them."

“FDC strongly believes the government has several institutions to handle human rights issues but lacks the political will to execute their mandate," Kikonyogo said.

He made these remarks during the weekly media briefing at the party’s headquarters in Kampala on Monday.

governmentforagainstKikonyogo rebuked the government for refusing to renew the contract for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR) operations in Uganda. According to him, the presence of UNCHR ensured that voices against human rights abuses could be easily heard.

John Kikonyogo (right) Deputy spokeperson of Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) addressing a press conference at the party headquarters in Kampala.

He said the country has strong human rights institutions and a vibrant civil society, which are capable of monitoring the promotion and protection of human rights, but the violation rate is on the rise.

“It should be noted with concern that, in the presence of all those institutions, Ugandans are ambushed by armed thugs and bundled into numberless vans,” he said. 

He added that journalists were beaten in 2019 in front of the UN Human Rights Office by security agencies, and that was evidence enough that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) party has no respect for human rights.

However, Col. Deo Karikona, the director of human rights at the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), said last week, while presenting a paper on the role of security agencies in promoting human rights during a training organized by the State House for journalists at Kyambogo University, that the UPDF went to the bush to fight for the restoration of human rights.

Col. Karikona said after the liberation of the country in 1986, President Yoweri Museveni urged the forces to come up with a report on how to restore human rights.

Col. Karikona said that out of concern, they pushed this matter during the constituency assembly to see that it currently covers many chapters of the 1995 Constitution.

 He said articles 208, 208, and 221 of the Constitution "in the performance of their duties."

He said it was unfortunate for the journalists who were mishandled by the security agencies at UN offices in 2019. He revealed that injured journalists had been compensated and that the perpetrators had been punished.

He revealed that James Akena, a photographer who was beaten while covering a demonstration in Kampala, had been compensated.

He alluded that for other journalists, whose rights were violated by security agencies, their matters were resolved though they are silent to speak out.