Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF) has released its third report on human rights violations against key populations in Uganda. The report which was produced with support from UGANET and The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO) was put together with contributions from several LGBTIQ, sex worker and other key population organizations that included Health and Rights Initiative, HOPE Mbale, Human Rights and Economic Empowerment and Development, Empowered at Dusk Women’s Association, Golden Centre for Women’s Rights and Uganda Harm Reduction Network.
“We have officially launched the 2020 report of human rights violations against Key populations in Uganda. This report details violations committed against key populations in the first half of 2020,” HRAPF shared on their social media platforms while launching the much anticipated report.
The report details cases where the human rights of MSM, transgender persons, sex workers and people who use drugs, were violated. Some of the findings of the report showed that there were only three incidents where the police protected KPs by way of arrest to prevent lynching and bodily harm.
The report also reveals that most of the documented cases against KPs were perpetrated by state actors and the most violated right was the right to liberty. It further reveals that local council authorities were reported to be high violators of the rights of key populations accounting for a whopping 47.6% of the documented cases. The Uganda Prisons and Uganda Police came second and third as the highest abusers of the rights of key populations in Uganda as per the officially recoded cases.
It also details how COVID 19 and its prevention were used as a scapegoat to arrest and illegally detain several people that fall in the key populations category.
The report also lists a number of recommendations to help safeguard the rights and lives of key populations in Uganda. The recommendations are specially directed to the President, Parliament, Uganda Police, Uganda Prisons Services, Ministry of Local Government, Ministry of Health, Uganda Human Rights Commission, the Equal Opportunities Commission, Uganda AIDS Commission and all civil society organisations.
Among the recommendations is the need to repeal all laws that unfairly criminalize key populations, strengthening mechanisms to bring state actors to book when they violate the human rights of any human being, the need for ministries to take the lead in guiding civil servants to uphold human rights for all, among many others.
To read the full report, please click
