Human Rights Watch has urged the Government of Uganda to reverse its decision of ending the mandate of the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Uganda.
Mr Oryem Nyeko, Ugandan researcher at the Human Rights Watch said shutting down the UN human rights office is a move intended to stifle those working to promote respect for human rights in Uganda.
“Instead of removing another critical voice from the human rights ecosystem, Ugandan authorities should create an enabling environment for rights advocates to work,” Nyeko urged.
He said the Human Rights Watch has since written to the Foreign Affairs ministry permanent secretary, Mr Vincent Bagiire with questions about the Government’s position on the UN rights office but Bagiire referred them to the ministry’s earlier communication on the matter.
Nyeko said that the Uganda government has not only shown little commitment to addressing the country’s deteriorating human rights situation, but has increased repression of human rights groups.
“Concerned UN member states should press Uganda to constructively engage with all UN human rights mechanisms and put in place measures to allow rights groups to work freely without fear,” he cautioned.
On February 6, 2023, Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Ministry informed the OHCHR Uganda country office that it would not renew its agreement to host the UN entity beyond its current three-year term ending in February 2023.
The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), a department of the United Nations Secretariat, is mandated to promote and protect the enjoyment and full realization, by all people, of all rights established in the Charter of the United Nations and in international human rights laws and treaties.
The mandate includes preventing human rights violations, securing respect for all human rights, promoting international cooperation to protect human rights and streamlining the United Nations system in the field of human rights.
The Office was established in Kampala in 2006, with the initial mandate focused on the human rights situation in the conflict-affected areas of Northern and North-Eastern Uganda. However, it was renewed in 2009 and expanded to cover the entire country and all human rights issues.
In February 2020, the mandate for the Office was further expanded to include the establishment of a Regional Human Rights Training Centre in Uganda; to provide training activities on the international human rights system for Government officials of interested States in the region, as well as national human rights institutions and civil society organizations.
