Uganda Human Rights Commission Report faults Police on torture.

The Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) has once again put the Uganda Police force on the spot as an institution that grossly violates and abuses the rights of its citizens according to their 2015  Human Rights report.

In its 18th annual report to parliament detailing the status of the human rights observance across the country, the Commission registered an increase of 4,227 complaints in 2015 compared to 3904 in 2013 period.

However, the report notes that out of these cases, only 731 complaints met the criteria of human violence which were mainly due to family and election violence.

The report ranks prolonged detention of political suspects beyond the mandatory 48 hours, violation of freedom from torture and cruel inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, violation of the right to personal liberty top on the list of human rights abuses in 2015.

Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga.

Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga.

While delivering the annual report to the Speaker of Parliament, on Thursday July 28, 2016, the Commission Chairperson Hon. Meddi Kaggwa faulted state institutions especially the police for violating the rights of especially suspects by detaining them beyond the mandatory period of 48 hours without being produced in the Courts of law.

Despite the various reports about institutional brutality, UHRC says the Uganda Police is always have the majority of cases of human rights violations reported against it. The Commission insists that the Police personnel should use modern techniques of investigation and equipment to avoid the use of torture in obtaining information and controlling crowds.

“Some police officers have not seen the Constitution and other relevant laws they have to implement while executing their duties. They should be equipped with the relevant compendium of laws”, the Commission Chair noted.

Kaggwa, however, said most of the torture cases were registered during and after the 2016 general campaigns.

Hon. Medi Kaggwa also reported several challenges in the prisons and detention facilities where the high prison population and the detention of juveniles with adults remain key challenges.

The Commission has proposed several decongesting measures that include the amendment of the law to prohibit the detention of civil debtors, the use of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and the appointment of more judges and magistrates to handle cases especially in the countryside.

Kaggwa reported that UHRC had visited 896 detention centers out of which 173 were for prisons, 205 police stations, 509 police posts, four military prisons and five remand homes.

He noted that the status of prisons is still worrying because prisoners still use the bucket system to dispose off their human waste; a situation he says is unhealthy and can easily cause an outbreak of diseases within the prison.

The report has also highlighted delays in the implementation of the UHRC Tribunal Awards, which has raised a debt to a tune of about 5 billion Uganda shillings.

The Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. Rebecca Kadaga urged the Commission to follow up on matters relating to justice for minority ethnic groups.

She says that the minimum wage issue which is being pushed by Parliament has never been given consideration.

The Speaker hailed the UHRC for its timely reports but appealed to government to table country reports on human rights before Parliament ahead of their consideration by International agencies. She promised to follow up with all the recommendations in the report.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.