UN Human rights body to review Uganda

Nov 23, 2009

Uganda’s human rights situation will be reviewed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2011 for the first time.

By Josephine Maseruka

Uganda’s human rights situation will be reviewed by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2011 for the first time.

This was announced by Margaret Sekaggya, the UN Special Rapporteur workinng on the situation of human rights defenders.

Sekaggya, the executive director of the Human Rights Centre in Uganda, revealed this on Wednesday at a meeting with directors of 15 non-governmental organisations at Imperial Royale Hotel, Kampala.

The meeting was aimed at promoting the newly-established Human Rights Centre establishing challenges affecting human rights defenders and identifying areas of collaboration with the Special Rapporteur.

Sekaggya explained that Uganda, like other countries, would make its own assessment on the human rights situation in the country, and the Government and NGOs would make their reports.

The reports will be sent to the General Assembly in New York and to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Sekaggya appealed to stakeholders to start preparing the reports.

She said, like the African peer review mechanism report in which members states make self-asse ssment, so is it with the Universal Periodic Review by the UN Human Rights Council.

NGOs resolved to document their gains and successes in order to assess their impact in the country and create the way forward.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});