HRCU WEEKLY UPDATES ISSUE NO_14 OF 2021
HRCU WEEKLY UPDATE: ISSUE NO.14 OF
2021THE HUMAN RIGHTS CENTRE UGANDA (HRCU)
WEEKLY UPDATE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND KEY EMERGING
ISSUES WITHIN THE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS' WORKING ENVIRONMENT
ISSUE NO.14 of 2021 |The Week of April 12-
April 18, 2021
THE COVID-19 SITUATION IN UGANDA
Elected
leaders in the National Unity Platform-NUP party have taken an oath to defend
their electorate against human rights violations and fight corruption that they
claim fosters poor service delivery in the country.
While closing their two-day retreat at the Jinja based Nile Resort Hotel on Saturday, the NUP leaders resolved to adopt the oath as a working document for all leaders throughout their political tenures. Led by their president Robert Kyagulanyi, the leaders also passed seven resolutions which will foster the continued transformation and visibility of their party throughout the country.
NUP
leaders take oath to defend human rights (independent.co.ug)
Moroto based
radio journalists are panicking after unknown warriors threatened their lives. The
threats were issued through letters that were dropped at Akica and Ateker radio
stations in Moroto district early this week.
In the
letters, four-morning show presenters were issued with warnings over what the
warriors described as continuous discussions on the security situation in
Karamoja. The warned include, Timothy Eodu and Catherine Alany of Akica FM, and
Fiona Nambuya and Innocent Kodet of Ateker FM.
According to
Timothy Eodu, one of the targeted presenters, the letters are asking them to
stop disseminating information relating to cattle raids and killings in the
region. He notes that the authors of the letter claim that it is the publicity
by radio stations in the region that is drawing government attention as well as
the heavy deployment of security heads to the region.
Journalists threatened over continued exposure of insecurity in Karamoja (independent.co.ug)
KUTESA TO UN: ‘THERE ARE NO ABDUCTIONS OR KIDNAPPINGS BY SECURITY FORCES IN UGANDA’
The Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Sam Kutesa has told UN members of the Security Council that
there are no abductions or kidnappings in the country as reports have been
suggesting.
Hon.Kutesa
made the remarks this week while briefing the Heads of Missions of the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council from
USA, China, UK, France and the Russian Federation, European Union and Dean of Diplomatic Corps.
Since
November last year, reported cases of abductions and kidnaps have been on a
rise in the country.
Foreign
Affairs minister Kutesa denies abduction talk in Uganda (nilepost.co.ug)
The United
States Mission in Uganda on Wednesday launched a $12.8 million
Civil Society Strengthening Activity (CSSA) fund which is aimed at supporting
the contribution of Ugandan civil society organizations (CSOs) towards development
in the country.
The five-year
project, administered through the U.S. Agency for International Development
(USAID), seeks to contribute to national and local development across thematic
areas including health; education, youth, and child development; agriculture;
and democracy, rights, and governance.
The USAID/CSSA project will provide grants and technical support to CSOs and government institutions to expand alliances among multiple stakeholders and promote an enabling environment in which civil society in Uganda may thrive.
U.S Mission launches $12.8 million project to support CSOs in Uganda (nilepost.co.ug)
Cabinet has
approved the Mining and Mineral Bill 2020, Sarah Opendi, the minister of state
for Energy and Mineral Development said on Wednesday.
She said the
new bill will effectively replace the Mining and Mineral Policy of 2018.
She said the
law was necessary because the government needed to reform and strengthen the
legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks to cater for emerging issues
arising in the minerals sub sector which include; mineral traceability, certification,
value addition, mineral revenue management and the formalization of Artisanal
and Small Scale Miners.
Government
approves Mining Bill 2020 - Nile Post
Hon. Sarah Opendi
Achieng; Minister of
State for Mineral Dev't
WORRY AS REFUGEE CHILDREN IN UGANDA ARE EXPECTED TO CLOCK 500,000 BY 2031
Government has
expressed concern over the ever increasing number of children belonging to
refugees hosted in Uganda.
Speaking
during an inter-ministerial high level breakfast dialogue at Sheraton Hotel in
Kampala, the Assistant Commissioner in charge of Disaster Preparedness in the
Office of the Prime Minister, Menha Gerald Simon said every year, 40,000
children are born to refugees, a trend he said is worrying.
“Many of the
refugees are raped before coming here. In the result, every year, refugees give
birth to 40,000 children some of whom are fatherless. In 10 years from now,
500,000 refugee children will be in Uganda,”Menha said.
Worry
as refugee children in Uganda are expected to clock 500,000 by 2031 - Nile Post
President Yoweri Museveni has said he is not happy
with the way MPs conduct themselves when they are in Parliament.
“So for you to come here (Parliament) as MPs and
you just sit, Members of Parliament, honourable, what! The whole day—standing,
sitting down; point of order, point of information—you look like clowns in that
Parliament there,” Museveni told the over 200 National Resistance Movement
(NRM) MPs-elect on Thursday. He was officially opening the retreat for the
newly elected party MPs and independents at the National Leadership Institute
in Kyankwanzi district. The retreat that is also being attended by the party’s
central executive committee members will end on April 29.
New Vision - New Vision
Official
GOVT FAILS TO ACCOUNT FOR 365 MISSING NUP SUPPORTERS
The government has failed to trace 365 National Unity Platform (NUP)
supporters that were reported missing by the party last month.
Last Month, NUP’s vice president in charge of the central region, also MP
Masaka municipality Mathias Mpuga, tabled before Parliament a list of names for
423 people
that had been reported to NUP as missing by their relatives.
This was after internal affairs minister Gen. Jeje Odongo presented a
list of 177 names of people that had been reported missing, that he said were
in security custody.
NUP protested the list saying it was not satisfactory given the number of
missing Ugandans, the majority of whom were not on the government’s list.
The Party tasked the government to reconcile the list with that of NUP,
to find the rest of the Ugandans that had been reported as missing.
However, in his statement to Parliament on Thursday, about NUP’s missing
individuals, Odongo said out of the 423 reported missing persons by NUP, the
government was able to identify only 58, leaving a balance of 365, whose
whereabouts are unknown.
New Vision - New Vision
Official
Officials
from the Ministry of Finance came under fire from lawmakers who are
investigating alleged misallocation of Shs500b Covid-19 stimulus package.
The money in
question was channelled through the Uganda Development Bank (UDB) for access in
form of loans to the private sector.
Thousands of
teachers and their supervisors at the Ministry of Education are at loggerheads
over delayed access to Shs20 billion that President Museveni promised.
At the height
of lockdown last year, Mr Museveni directed that the money be released to
relieve the financial distress of teachers in private institutions.
Museveni
cash divides teachers, MoE officials - Daily Monitor
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