Prisons population up by 2,633, report shows

By John Odyek

The prisons population has swollen to 34,940 prisoners by December 2012 from 32,307 in 2011, according to the report of the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) 2012 recently released.

This means the number has shot up by 2,633 prisoners.

According to the findings, female inmates share cells with male counterpart. Besides, there is concern over the incarceration of children with adults or with their mothers.

The 15th annual report released mid last week and presented to Parliament, is set to be scrutinized by the parliamentary committee on human rights.

The committee now has a backlog of previous four reports to examine and make recommendations on the issues raised to Parliament.

“The commission noted the efforts to continue phasing out the use of buckets for toilets in the detention places. However the problem persisted in some places and was worse in Police cells,” stated the report.

It also recommended that the Uganda Police Force and Uganda Prisons Service should urgently construct new and renovate old buildings to meet the minimum standards for treatment of inmates and suspects.

Civil debtors, salaries

On civil debtors, the report challenged the detention of civil debtors, saying their detention is merely because they failed to fulfill their contractual obligations violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The covenant states that no-one should be imprisoned merely on the ground of inability to fulfill a contractual obligation.

The commission noted that the number civil debtors who all were male increased to 172 by end of 2012 from 119 by end of 2011.

According to the findings, the low and delayed salary increment of teachers, health workers, civil servants and the delayed payment of pensions were emerging human rights issues.

And so a request was directed to government was that of appointing a judge for the industrial court to enable the resolution of labour disputes.

It wants government to operationalize Collective Bargaining Agreement to enable labour unions represent their members.

Besides, the report urges Parliament to review laws which restrict the free operation of NGOs.

It observed that there were rising cases of bribery and corruption, which limit the right to development, especially funds for development programmes.

Journalists, oil and justice

On journalists’ right to work under satisfactory, safe and healthy conditions, the report said that journalists continued to work under unsatisfactory conditions.

It showed that journalists deployed to cover riots lacked safety gear and health insurance and that some of the media laws were outdated and need amending or repealing.

The report charged that the oil and gas bills that have been passed by Parliament do not provide for human rights safeguards, arguing that equal opportunity for vulnerable groups, non- discrimination and transparency should be well catered for.

And now there is potential conflict between the powers of the Petroleum Authority, minister and the oil companies.

Rising cases of mob justices were cited, with a reported 466 deaths of such nature in 2012.

The UHRC report called on the justice and law sector to sensitize the public on the rule of law and the dangers of mob justice.