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Uganda joins the rest of the world to celebrate World Contraception Day 2016

Today, Uganda joins the rest of the world to celebrate World  Contraceptive Day under the theme; ” its your life, take charge.” According to the World Contraceptive Day  Coalition, worldwide more than
41% of the 208 million pregnancies that occur each year are unplanned.  Nearly half of these unplanned pregnancies end in abortion.

An estimated 33 million unintended pregnancies are a result of  contraceptive failure or incorrect use so it is important that young people are well informed about  the different methods available.  Every
year, up to 16 million adolescent females aged 15 to 19 give birth. In this age group, pregnancy-related deaths are the leading cause of mortality for young women. Each year, contraception prevents 188 million unplanned pregnancies which results in 112 million fewer abortions, 1.1 million fewer newborn deaths, and 150,000 fewer maternal deaths.

More than half of all women of reproductive age in developing countries, approximately 867 million, want to avoid pregnancy.

World Contraceptive Day’s mission is to improve awareness of contraception and to enable young people to make informed choices on their sexual and reproductive health.

The 3rd National Conference on Economic Social and Cultural Rights

The Public Interest Law Clinic (PILAC) of the School of Law, Makerere University together with the Centre for Health Human Rights and Development (CEHURD), the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), the Uganda Consortium on Corporate Accountability, (UCCA), the Human Rights Network-Uganda (HURINET-U), The Global Rights Alert (GRA) and the Ugandan Human Rights Commission (UHRC) held the 3rd National  Conference on Economic, Social and Cultural  Rights at Makerere University Main Hall, under the theme: Business and Human Rights in Uganda: Accountability Vs Social Responsibility for corporate abuse.

The two day conference aimed at initiating and contributing to public dialogue about business and human rights and enhance the need to build structures and frameworks that  promote respect and protection of human rights by businesses, as well as ensuring access to remedies in cases of abuses.

The conference brought together representatives from Government Agencies, NGOs’/CBOs, members of the academia, students, participants from the African Continent, representatives from the Diplomatic Missions, Development Partners, corporate entities, the business community, communities affected by actions of Corporations and the general public to discuss, develop structures and frameworks that can boost respect and protection of human rights by businesses.

As the conveners of the conference, CEHURD’s Executive Director Mr. Mulumba Moses gave remarks on behalf of the partnering organisations. In his remarks Mr. Mulumba said , “privatisation has taken over the role of the central government this has seen critical entities like the health sector being taken over by private entities, the private sector has taken over 50% of service provision in the health sector but how far have these gone to ensure that human rights are respected. ”

Dr. Michael Addo a member of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights,and the key note speaker said, “the topic of conference is timely because of its global significance, there is evidence of advance human rights impact by private actors from the baseline study that was disseminated during the conference.”

He acknowledged the different initiatives that are responding to business and human rights for example the policy framework to protect and respect remedy framework. “These are based on three integrated pillars, the state’s duty to protect human rights by third parties including business enterprises, the responsibility of business to protect human rights and lastly access to effective remedy to those whose rights are violated,” he said.

He called for common understanding and a sense of ownership of what stakeholders are doing in regards to business and human rights and hopes that Uganda adopts the guiding principles.

He explained, that guiding principles on business and human rights where based on the multi stakeholder approach to guide and protect business and human rights. The aim of the guiding principle he said is to provide a universal applicable guidelines that allow governments and companies to apply them in different circumstances taking in account the complexity of tools and processes at their disposal. They are not might to represent a silver bullet solution to the institutional miss alignments in the business and human rights field instead all social actors must do things differently. Considerations of the context of a particular region or country should be done when implementing the guiding principles.

Parallel sessions where held with various panellists sharing incites on issues to do with the state of corporate accountability in Uganda, public private partnerships in delivery of public services opportunity or threat to human rights, accessing health Care services in a commercialised sector to mention but a few.

An engaging parallel session on access to health in a commercialised sector was also spread headed by CEHURD. The session was graced by Prof Ben Twinomujuni, Ambassador Nathan Irumba, Mr. Denis Kibira, Dr. Peter Okwero, Doreen Nambule a representative of Uganda Medical and Dental Practioners Council, Prof John Jean Barya, victims from the community, students, the media and the general public.

In his remarks, Ambassador Irumba stated that the state must be held accountable in ensuring that citizens are able to access health care services.

Dr. Okwero said,” as a country, we need have effective systems, leadership and resources both government and the private sector do not have resources,17% of health services are financed by the government, 34% by other sources and the rest is out of pocket, financed by individuals also he advised that as a country, we to change our attitude, and look closely at taking up health insurance plans. He added, that there is a need to regulate the entire health sector and not only the private sector .

Prof Barya, citied countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda, whereby in Rwanda community health insurance scheme has been adopted and so, called for Uganda to copy a leaf from such best practises.

Testimonies of victims from the community suffering from the effects of the stone quarrying business where shared during the session. Ms. Maria Kyazike narrated that the community well water has been contaminated because of the stone quarrying process by the Chinese investors in her village.

The conference was insightful and was used as an opportunity to review the status of human rights in Uganda and to set the momentum for discussion on issues related to abuse of human rights by businesses and corporate bodies.

General recommendations that arose from the conference included: the need to implement the UN guiding principles of business and human right, a call for more community engagement in ensuring human rights are protected and respected,  A need for Ugandans to demand for their right from the government, a human rights impact assessment carried out mostly for in the environmental sector before any business is accepted to operate, in the health sector and a call for the regulation of the private health care service providers.

The 3rd National Conference on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

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The Public Interest Law Clinic (PILAC) of the School of Law, Makerere University together with the Centre for Health Human Rights and Development (CEHURD), the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), the Uganda Consortium on Corporate Accountability, (UCCA), the Human Rights Network-Uganda (HURINET-U), The Global Rights Alert (GRA) and the Ugandan Human Rights Commission (UHRC) have organized the 3rd National  Conference on Economic, Social and Cultural  Rights at Makerere University Main Hall, under the theme: Business and Human Rights in Uganda: Accountability Vs Social Responsibility for corporate abuses, scheduled to take place from the 14th – 15th September at The Makerere University Main Hall from 8:00am -5:00pm .

The team of organizers hope to bring together representatives from Government Agencies, NGOs’/CBOs, members of the academia, students, participants from the African Continent, representatives from the Diplomatic Missions, Development Partners, corporate entities, the business community, communities affected by actions/omissions of Corporations and the general public to discuss and develop structures and frameworks that can boost respect and protection of human rights by businesses as well as ensuring access to remedies in cases of abuses.

The idea of an Annual Conference on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was born in 2014, at the behest of Government processes that flagged the need for constitutional reforms.

Please register for the conference here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSetlyFXU-bUy98N62ajTCqEk2dw3zNQ0B6HRWBzsqunEFDRmg/viewform

Findings and Decision of the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council on the death of Jennifer Anguko

On the 29th of January , 2016, the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioner’s Council ( UMDPC) delivered its decision in the maternal health case of the late Anguko Jennifer ( Mr. Inziku Valente’s
late wife – a Petitioner in Constitutional Petition No.16 of 2011) that lost her life at Arua Regional Referral Hospital in October, 2010.

After the death of the late Anguko, the Ministry of Health was moved by the Woman MP for Arua district to investigate the uncertain death of the late Anguko. The Ministry of Health then directed the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioner’s Council (UMDPC) to conduct an investigation.

In 2012, UMDPC held an inquiry into the death of the late Anguko at Arua Regional Referral Hospital where relevant people and hospital staff were examined on the circumstances that led to the death of the late Anguko. CEHURD was invited for the inquiry and since 2012, CEHURD was following
up the matter.

A summary of UMDPC’s decision is highlighted below;

  • The intervention to save the life of the late Anguko was delayed . The delay was caused by a number of factors namely ; (1) Midwife did not get the doctor who was supposed to be on duty (2) there were low staffing levels that day – the midwife was overwhelmed to handle three emergencies at the same time (3) the doctor on duty did not know that he was on duty and Hospital director did not know who was on duty that day
  • The midwife did not use the standards used to monitor progress of an expectant mother -pantograph was not used.
  • The Hospital administration failed its duty to ensure that the duty roster is available and known to the hospital staff. A serious caution to the Hospital Director is to be issued.
  • The doctor that was on call that day did not know that he was on duty and when he was called by the head of department he came urgently to handle the case of the late Anguko.
  • The Ministry of Health was urged to ensure that Arua Regional Referral Hospital is well equipped to serve its purpose as a regional referral hospital.
  • The issues relating to the nurses/ midwives were referred to the Uganda Nurses and Midwifes Council for investigation.

Download a full report of findings and decisions decision here.

Press Statement: Release Obiga Patrick from IHK jail today – #FreeObiga

FreeObiga

Download press statement here

Kampala –Uganda –Today the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) and Ms.
Rose Obiga filed a case with Uganda’s High court in Kampala seeking for a court order for the release of
Mr. Patrick Obiga who has been illegally imprisoned and detained at International Hospital Kampala (IHK) in Namuwongo.

On the 4th day of August, 2016 Mr. Patrick Obiga –an assistant operations officer with Hash Security while on duty supervising his colleagues got an accident and while unconscious was rushed to IHK in
Namuwongo for emergency treatment. Mr. Obiga was given an emergency operation which successfully
brought him back to life. On the 22nd day of August, 2016, health workers recommended his discharge from hospital.

Mr. Obiga was charged a sum of over 38 million (Thirty eight million Uganda Shillings) as fees for his
treatment. His family has been able to pay over 20 million (Twenty million Uganda Shillings) in installments. Despite the partial payment and Mr. Obiga’s plea to be discharged to look for the outstanding balance, he
remains incarcerated at the Hospital.

This act of detaining and imprisoning patients in health facilities is unconstitutional and violates
fundamental human rights guaranteed in the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda. In this instance, IHK is in continuous violation of Mr. Patrick Obiga’s right to liberty, right to be free from torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. These violations are also in breach of the Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act, that Parliament passed recently!

IHK can recover its out standing balances following due process of law rather than abusing rights of
patients.

WE DEMAND THE RELEASE OF OBIGA PATRICK FROM IHK JAIL TODAY!

We appeal to the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioner’s Council to:

  • Urgently make a communication on how to regulate practices of private health service providers in
    recovering their costs without subjecting patients to incarceration
  • Review files of all patients detained illegally by IHK and other private health facilities and make
    arrangements for their immediate discharge