Uganda tasked to improve human rights situation

By Ivan Ssenabulya

Uganda has been tasked to work on a number of issues to improve its human rights record.

This was during the 40^th session of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva-Switzerland, where the foreign Affairs Minister Gen Jeje Odongopresented the country’s national report on the state of human rights.

Uganda has been criticized for the shrinking civic space and the November 2020 riots where over 50 people and stifling civil space

Odong says the government is committed to improving the situation and many challenges brought about by new media which are a source of disinformation incitement and hate speech that poses a threat to national security.

Countries through their representatives have recommended that Uganda ratify the international Protocol against torture, improve rights protection for people living with albinism, abolish the death penalty, and improve enforcement of the Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) laws.

The government has also been tasked to adopt a law to protect Human Rights Defenders and journalists.

Written by Noelyn Nassuuna