By Denis Juuko

In collaboration with Ipas- Africa Alliance, CEHURD held a workshop for law enforcement institutions on the legal and policy environment for access to safe abortion services in Uganda.

The workshop built synergies between law enforcement officers and health workers in dealing with the unwarranted arrests, detention, and prosecution of women, girls, and healthcare providers for offering abortion related services.

At the workshop, participants shared their experiences of how they deal with issues related abortion in the communities they serve.

It was noted that post abortion care is not restricted but police is not aware about the position of the law hence resulting to unwarranted arrests, embarrassments and harassment of health practitioners who offer post-abortion care, which leads to stigma in the communities where they operate.

Health workers during the discussions brought to the attention of law enforcement officers that some women and girls come with inevitable abortions and therefore the law enforcement officers need to understand the situations the women are in. They equally emphasized the need to respect their professions since they take oaths of saving lives at all costs.

As a take home for the participants, it was agreed that law enforcement officers and health workers need to have a good working relationship to save the lives of women who suffer complications and death as a result of clandestine unsafe abortions.

The Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD), Mubangizi Michael and Musimenta Jennifer Vs the Executive Director of Mulago National Referral Hospital and Attorney General of Uganda ( Civil Suit No 212 of 2013), “Mulago case” and Justice Lydia Mugambe’s judgement have been nominated for the Gender Justice Uncovered Awards.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR CEHURD!

The case resulted from the failure of Mulago hospital to account for the whereabouts of the baby of Musimenta Jennifer who gave birth to twins at the hospital but was only given one baby.   Later, the hospital gave her the body of a deceased baby whom after the DNA test was found not compatible with Mubangizi Michael and Musimenta Jennifer (parents of the lost baby).

In her judgement, Justice Lydia Mugambe ordered police to conclusively investigate the disappearance of the baby, the midwife who handled the baby at birth be held accountable, for Mulago hospital to take steps to ensure and enhance the respect, movement and safety of babies in the facility, dead or alive. The 1st Defendant was also ordered to make written reports every four months regarding steps taken.

The ruling also stated that the 1st Plaintiff shall have free access to the hospital to oversee implementation measures, 1st Plaintiff shall also ensure that the 2nd and 3rd Plaintiffs access psychosocial care, and lastly the 2nd and 3rd Plaintiffs were awarded a cost of Ugx 85,000,000/=.

The Gender Justice Uncovered Awards is an initiative by Women’s Link Worldwide to award decisions or statements which mainstream gender relations in the various aspects of life including the right to health.

You are invited to vote for the case each day between now and May 31^st 2017. Vote here: http://www.womenslinkworldwide.org/en/awards/cases/missing-baby.

The Constitutional Court of Uganda responded in affirmative to CEHURD’s Constitutional Application No.15 of 2017 arising from Petition No. 46 of 2016 filed by British American Tobacco (BAT) in a court session heard by five Justices including Kavuma, Cheborion, Kasule, Butera and Obura.

British American Tobacco (BAT) Limited was represented by Mr. James Mukasa Sebugenyi, Mr. Patson Arinaitwe and Paul Mbuga while the State was represented by State Attorney Mr. Gerald Batanda as well as CEHURD represented by Mr. David Kabanda and Mr. James Zeere.

Last year 2016 BAT dragged the Government of Uganda to court challenging several sections of the Tobacco control Act of 2015 claiming that they are in contravention of and/ or inconsistent with the constitution of the republic of Uganda. Upon this, they filled a petition challenging the constitutionality of the Act, and in the interim sought an injunction staying the application of the Tobacco Control Act.

Court will hear the application on 17th May 2017, and a ruling on the injunction application will be given on notice.

The constitution court ruled that CEHURD be added as an interested party after the Applicants conceded to the application. Parties to the case were given one week to file and serve necessary documents.
The next hearing will be on 17th May 2017.

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) has put 1 June 2017 as the last day for Non-Governmental Organizations to apply for consultative status in order to have an opportunity to take part in UN deliberations.

Interested Parties should follow this LINK to apply for this status as well as getting more information on the same.

As the World Commemorates the International Day of Midwives, under the theme, “Midwives, Mothers & Families: Partners for life,” The Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) within the Coalition to Stop Maternal Mortality in Uganda and with Support from the Advocacy For Better Health project conducted a Community Dialogue at the CEHURD headquarters in Ntinda.

This Dialogue brought together different stake holders including Midwives form different Health facilities such as the National Referral Hospital, Members of the Civil Society Organisations, Mothers and Fathers as well as Media Practitioners.

The Dialogue which was aimed at appreciating the wonderful role played by midwives in according care to women and their newborns during pregnancy, labor, childbirth and the post delivery period gave the different stake holders an opportunity to expound on Experiences encountered by Midwives while doing their day to day work, the Challenges they face as well as paving way on how to address the existing challenges hence improving quality service delivery and thus reducing the maternal mortality rate in the country.

In the presence of the Media, the gathering took this opportunity to ask the Government of Uganda to;

• Recruit more midwives to address the imbalance in numbers between the midwives, women and the newborns in their care.
• Provide materials and equipment needed for the midwives to undertake their work.

You Can also Find the CEHURD Official Press Statement Released during the Commemoration of the International Day of the Midwives HERE.