UN petitioned to look at 2021 rights abuses

The human rights committees and special mandate holders at the United Nations (UN) have been petitioned to take action against government of Uganda for alleged “gross violations of human rights” that were committed in the run-up and during the 2021 General Election.

Special mandate-holders are not UN staff. They are Special Rapporteurs (SRs) or Independent Expert (IEs) or working groups on specific fields. In this case, it is on human rights.

Mr Nicholas Opiyo, the team leader of the petitioners, Chapter Four Uganda, told Saturday Monitor that he hopes that the petitions will serve to jolt the international community to come to Uganda’s rescue.

“Chapter Four hopes that the three communications will alert the international community of the need to take effective action in support of the Ugandan people,” Mr Opiyo said.

Issues around human rights violations linked to the 2021General Election have remained a major talking point. Last year, many Opposition lawmakers stayed away from the House for long periods as part of a protest aimed at compelling the government to give full accountability for the killings that occurred then and the alleged disappearance of Opposition supporters at the hands of security personnel.

Mr Opiyo said whereas the UN may not have the mechanism to compel Uganda to come good on its obligations, it can establish a team to investigate the human rights situation in Uganda.

“Through the United Nations Human Rights Commission, it can take measures, including establishing a dedicated body mandated to investigate the human rights situation in Uganda. It is regrettable that this action was not taken immediately after the election violence in 2020-2021,” he said.

Fears
Protests broke out in the Uganda capital of Kampala and other parts of the country on November 18, 2020. This was after news of the arrest in Luuka District of the National Unity Platform (NUP) principal and then presidential candidate, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine. At least 54 people, including innocent bystanders and market vendors, were killed as the authorities beat back protestors with teargas and live ammunition.

Now in three separate November 18, 2023 submissions sent out to the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), the UN HRC Working Group on Universal Periodic Review (UPR), and the UN Committee on the Convention Against Torture (CAT), Chapter Four Uganda warns that inaction on the part of the UN will lead to a repeat of the same abuses during the next election cycle.

“If the international community permits Uganda to hide behind rhetorical misrepresentations and failures to respond, not only will impunity continue for these serious human rights violations, but it is more likely that such abuses will be repeated during Uganda’s 2026 General Election,” the petition read in parts.

Govt response
Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the minister for Information Communication Technology and National Guidance, denied knowledge of the petition. Regardless, Minister Baryomunsi was quick to dismiss it.

“It would not be surprising that it is Chapter Four that had filed the petition. That is the business they are in trying to look for money in the international community, that they are fighting for human rights, but it is not for the UN to tell us whether to defend people’s rights or not,” Dr Baryomunsi told Saturday Monitor.

Mr Opiyo, however, shot back saying that such a response had been expected.

“Unfortunately, based on the pattern of past behaviour, we expect Uganda to ignore these filings just as they have persistently ignored their human rights obligations. However, we hope that the international community will review these filings and use their good offices to persuade Uganda to start respecting the UN human rights treaty bodies,” he said.

It would appear that issues around violence and abuses during the 2021 General Election simply will not go away. They featured prominently in the “2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices”, which was published on the State Department’s website and accused the authorities of doing nothing to bring the guilty parties to book.

Falsehoods
Chapter Four said the government was, in the wake of the violence that marred the 2021 General Election, asked to explain several accusations. These included the use of excessive force; unlawful killings, arbitrary detentions, torture and enforced disappearances. Chapter Four said the Museveni administration instead peddled lies in its presentations to the UN Human Rights Committee; the UN Committee on the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel and Inhuman Treatment, and the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Universal Periodic Review.

The government, the petition documents alleged, “failed to provide truthful responses, and denied any responsibility for the election-related human rights abuses”.

The petition further read: “These misrepresentations are not innocent factual errors. They illustrate a clear intention to distort, disguise, and obscure the true state of human rights in Uganda, particularly in connection to the election period 2020-2021.”

It adds: “They demonstrate a consistent pattern of deceit and disrespect towards the UN Human Rights Bodies and Special Mandate Holders and a flagrant disregard for Uganda’s treaty obligations.”

The authorities, the documents say, categorically disassociated themselves from allegations of enforced disappearances; denied the existence of ungazetted places of detention; denied that arbitrary detentions took place.

Lack of prosecution
The petition reveals that the government had claimed that it did not condone torture, and that the Director of Public Prosecutions had concluded almost 2,000 cases involving torture or serious mistreatments. The process is said to have resulted in 885 convictions between 2021 and 2022. Chapter Four said this was not true.

“In exposing the Ugandan authorities for these blatantly false assertions, we seek to draw the attention of the UN to the continued deteriorating human rights situation in the country,” Mr Opiyo said.

It should be remembered that the “2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices” accused Ugandan authorities of not doing anything about punishing errant officers.

“Impunity was a problem, and it was widespread in the [Uganda Police Force, Uganda People’s Defence Forces], the Uganda Prisons Service (UPS), and the executive branch. The security forces did not take adequate measures to investigate and bring to account officers implicated in human rights abuses, especially in incidents involving members of the political Opposition,” the report reads in part.

The report also names President Museveni as one of those that fuelled impunity, especially after he praised members of the Special Forces, who had earlier beaten up Mr Kyagulanyi.

It is not clear whether President Museveni was speaking in response to the contents of the said report, but early in August 2021, he in a televised speech that focussed on human rights issues, warned against acts of torture and detention of suspects for long periods.

“Beating captives is wrong. Why? You undermine your case in court—when the court discovered that you got information through torture. Secondly, on account of beating, somebody may admit what is not true. Torture, assassination, et cetera, are used by lazy people that are not ready to do more work using gaps in the stories of the criminals if they are telling lies,” Mr Museveni said.

Museveni promised to eliminate acts of torture, which he blamed on individual officers and failure by senior commanders to give appropriate instructions to those under their command.

Compensation
President Museveni promised during a televised address on November 29, 2020 that the families of at least 22 of the 54 people killed during the riots would be compensated. That compensation has been hard to come by, Chapter Four notes in its petition.

The petitioners now say the time that it has taken to process the compensation is testimony of the government’s lack of commitment to investigate extra judicial killings and compensate the victims, a conclusion that Dr Baryomunsi dismissed.

Dr Baryomunsi, however, could not say why the process of compensating the families of those who were killed has taken so long. 

[email protected]