African Commonwealth Human Rights Weekly Update (07/05 - 13/05/2011)

Sorry its late (Power blackouts in Accra last Friday). It seems like our weekly update on the Human Rights situation in the Commonwealth is a weekly update on the situation in Uganda. For an official CHRI statement on the recent troubles in Uganda click here. Once again Uganda was in the news this week for all the wrong reasons...

Uganda

Tuesday 10/05: Protesters sprayed pink: Protesters attempting to hold a rally in Kampala were broken up by police using dogs and pink paint fired from water cannons.

Spraying distinctive colours on protesters was a tactic employed by security forces in apartheid era South Africa. It is used to brand protesters so they are unable to evade the police when out of the demonstration zone. This tactic was most famously used in the 1989 Purple Rain Protest in Cape Town.

Opposition parties were hoping to hold protest is the Constitutional Square, a place where political demonstrations have been banned since 2007. After the protest Democratic Party leader Norbert Mao was arrested. This follows the three arrests of Kizza Besigye, the leader of the Forum for Democratic Change. For footage of Tuesdays protests and subsequent clampdown click here.

Thursday 12/05: Besigye returns to Uganda as Museveni is sworn in: Besigye timed his return from Kenya (where he was receiving medical treatment on injuries sustained whilst being arrested last month) to coincide with the official swearing in of Museveni for his new term in office. Besigye’s supporters made efforts to embarrass the government and pelted the motorcade of Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathon with stones. In the disturbances at least one of Besigye’s supporters was shot dead by security officials after coming too close to the presidential convoy.

Friday 13/05: Ugandan Parliament to debate homosexual legislation: The Ugandan parliament is to hold a special session on Friday to discuss legislation which proposes increasing the penalties for homosexual acts from 14 years in prison to life.

Ugandan parliament's Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee has recommended passage of the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bil. The anti-homosexuality bill, first drafted in October 2009, had thought to have been shelved in light of international pressure but reappeared in parliament last week. The original bill proposed the death penalty for a new offence of "aggravated homosexuality" (when one of the participants is a minor, HIV-positive, disabled or a "serial offender"). However MP David Bahati, who proposed the legislation, was quoted as saying that the death penalty "was something we have moved away from". Nonetheless Human Rights Watch  report that the committee recommends retaining it.

On a slightly more positive note, the committee has also recommended that provisions criminalizing "attempted" homosexuality should be removed because such allegations would be very difficult to prove. The committee also recommends scrapping the law that would require anyone knowing of homosexual conduct to report to police within 24 hours as it would create "problems especially to professionals whose ethics include confidentiality in order to be able to carry out their functions like Doctors, Lawyers and Counselors." (Human Rights Watch)

LGBT groups argue that the bill is being proposed now as it allows president Museveni to divert attention of Ugandans away from the growing strength of the protests under Kizza Besigye and tap into widespread anti-homosexual sentiment in the country to boost his own position. For in interesting insight into the bill see the Daily Maverick.

Nigeria

Monday 09/05: Allegations of Electoral Fraud: Tony Momoh the chairman of Nigeria’s main opposition party The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), filed a law suit in Abuja after he alleged widescale fraud in the country’s presidential elections in April

He said, "We have detailed election malpractices in the south-south, south-east, some states in the south-west geopolitical zones and even some states in the north"

The CPC wants elections to be rerun in several southern areas, which voted overwhelmingly for the returned President, Goodluck Jonathan. On Saturday a Christian village was attacked in the predominantly Muslim north in what is believed to be a spill over from the post election violence of late April.

CHRI Statement

CHRI OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON PROTESTS IN UGANDA, SWAZILAND AND MOZAMBIQUE

Issued 10/05/2011

As the world focuses its attention on oil rich North Africa and the Middle East, a wave of police brutality within sub-Saharan African states of the Commonwealth has gone largely unnoticed and unpunished. Uganda, Swaziland and Mozambique have seen a wave of protests. But little attention has been paid to the uniformly brutal way in which they are being dealt with. These are all Commonwealth countries. The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) strongly condemns the routine use of intimidation, beatings, illegal detention, torture and excessive use of force being used within these countries to curb legitimate expressions of dissent and the right to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly. With their focus on momentous developments, the world and the international media have paid little attention to suppression and illegal acts by state actors in these countries.

Throughout April, political activists in Uganda were repeatedly harassed, beaten and arrested by the police on trumped up charges whilst largely peaceful marches were violently suppressed. As a member of the Commonwealth, Uganda should ensure that its security forces act in the spirit of the Harare Declaration which emphasises the liberty of the individual and a commitment to human rights. Uganda is also bound by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which guarantees the right to hold opinions without interference, the right to freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly.

Walk to work protests began on April 11, 2011 against high fuel prices and a rising cost of living. For three weeks running, these generally peaceful protests were dispersed by the police and the army with rubber bullets, live ammunition, tear gas and pepper spray. At least eight people have been killed including a two year old child in Masaka on April 21, 2011. The UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials requires law enforcement agencies to “use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty”. Firing live ammunition indiscriminately into crowds that offer little threat to police officers or members of the public (as protesters have either been unarmed, or on occasion, armed with stones) is never necessary nor a proportional use of force.

The main Ugandan opposition leader and figurehead for the protests, Kizza Besigye has been shot in the hand, sprayed with pepper spray and forcibly extracted from his car by Ugandan police. On April 28, 2011, he was arrested for the third time in a month, having already been detained on charges of inciting violence and unlawful assembly. Grace Turyagumanawe, the Metropolitan police chief, justified the arrests by claiming Besigye "was inciting violence, blocking the road and disobeying police officers."

The right to freedom of expression is guaranteed in Uganda’s Constitution and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 4 of the ICCPR maintains that curbing rights such as the freedom of expression is only permissible when there is a public emergency  that threatens the life of the nation. The walk-to-work protests in Uganda have been overtly peaceful and carried out by unarmed members of the public, hence can hardly be seen as threatening the life of the nation.

CHRI also notes the failure of other police forces in the Commonwealth to act in the spirit of international human rights law. In Swaziland protests on April 18, 2011 were declared illegal by the state and police broke up protesters with water cannons and a spate of arbitrary arrests. Mcolisi Ngcamphalala, of the Swaziland Youth Congress said he was held and tortured by police for 24 hours. As in Uganda, the right to freedom of assembly is being desecrated by Swazi police. Torture is forbidden by the UN which states that a law enforcement official may not tolerate any act of torture and shall “ensure the full protection of the health of persons in their custody”.

In neighbouring Mozambique, protests on April 6, 2011 about unfair wage deductions of security staff ended in ugly scenes as riot police were filmed kicking and beating detained protesters. The UN states that “Law enforcement officials may use force only when strictly necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty”. Documentary evidence shows that this was not the case as protesters were repeatedly beaten having already been detained. Whilst CHRI deplores the excessive use of force, it is encouraged by the fact that a Commission of Inquiry was set up by the Mozambican Interior Ministry to investigate the incident.

We strongly urge the governments of Uganda and Swaziland to prosecute all those individuals who have been implicated in the use of force against peaceful demonstrators. All those responsible should be made accountable for their actions.

We also urge the Commonwealth to speak out in strong condemnation of actions by the Governments of Swaziland and Uganda who continue to violate the rights and freedoms of their citizens.

We encourage the Governments of the Commonwealth to listen to the cries of the people and act in a transparent manner with their citizens on matters that affect their socio-economic situation. Such matters can only be resolved through the promotion of dialogue, transparency and accountability in government dealings, policies and programmes.

We further recommend that the next Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Perth should review the standards of policing amongst its members.