Wayzata World Factbook 1996/The World Factbook - 1996 Edition - Wayzata Technology (3079) (1996).iso/pc/text/humanrts/uganda.txu

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TITLE: UGANDA HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES, 1994
AUTHOR: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DATE: FEBRUARY 1995



Section 4  Governmental Attitude Regarding International and
           Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations
           of Human Rights

The Government permits a variety of local NGO's concerned with
human rights to operate, although it monitors these and related
organizations if their activities touch prohibited political
areas (see Section 2.b.).

Of 15 nongovernmental human rights organizations, 5 actively
monitor human rights abuses:  The Foundation for Human Rights
Initiatives, the Uganda Human Rights Activists, the Ugandan Law
Society, the Ugandan Chapter of the International Women's
Lawyers Association (FIDA), and Action for Development.  The
FHRI regularly visits prisons to monitor conditions and
supports penal reform efforts.  FIDA concentrates on cases
involving women and children.  The Ugandan Human Rights
Activists publish a quarterly report, which regularly reports
on human rights abuses and prison conditions.  The Government
does not interfere in the operation of these groups.

The Uganda Human Rights Commission, created by the Government
to investigate human rights abuses prior to 1986, published a
series of reports in October recommending both legal action in
specific incidents of past human rights abuses and legal and
administrative reform to prevent the recurrence of violations.
In one case investigated by the Commission, 7 men were brought
to trial in Mbarara in August for the murder of 16 Muslims in
1979, shortly after the fall of Idi Amin.  The court released
two of the seven for lack of evidence; it convicted five in
October and sentenced them to death.

The Government allows access to Uganda by international human
rights monitoring groups.  Amnesty International visited
northern Uganda in November with full official cooperation.
The Office of the Inspector General conducted three workshops
for the army and police during the year, in conjunction with
the Swedish Raoul Wallenburg Foundation, the ICRC, the UNHCR,
and other NGO's.  The official and private media give broad
publicity to published international reports on Uganda's human
rights problems.

The Government created several bodies in 1994 to monitor human
rights in Uganda.  Following a February 1993 presidential
directive, the Resistance Councils in all districts set up
human rights subcommittees to monitor local human rights
violations.  A Human Rights Desk was established within the
Ministry of Justice to produce reports from these
subcommittees.  The Desk's first report for 1994 was still in
progress at year's end.  The Human Rights Desk held workshops
with the National Resistance Army in Kampala, Gulu and Mbale
during 1994 and sponsored a workshop for RC-1 members on human
rights issues in August.

Section 5  Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion,
           Disability, Language, or Social Status

The 1967 Constitution prohibits discrimination based on these
categories, except in the case of disability.  The draft
Constitution includes explicit reference to the disabled as
well.

     Women

Traditional and widespread discrimination against women
continues, especially in rural areas.  Many customary laws are
disadvantageous to women in the areas of adoption, marriage,
divorce, and devolution of property on death.  Women may not
own or inherit property or have custody of their children under
customary law.  Divorce law sets stricter evidentiary standards
to prove adultery for women than for men.  Women cannot sponsor
a foreign-born spouse or the children of such a union for
citizenship, whereas foreign women who marry Ugandans and the
children of those marriages automatically receive citizenship.
Married women need their husband's signatures on their passport
application forms before they receive a passport.  Women do
most of the agricultural work but own only 7 percent of the
land.

Domestic violence, including rape, is common, and there are no
laws to protect battered women apart from a general law on
assault.  Public and law enforcement officials view wife
beating as a man's prerogative and rarely intervene in cases of
domestic violence.  Women are more likely to sue for divorce
than to raise assault charges against their husbands while
still married.

     Children

The Government has severely limited resources to devote to
child welfare.  As a result of past civil war and the AIDS
scourge, the number of orphans is thought to exceed 1 million.

Child abuse remains a serious problem.  Corporal punishment is
common in some schools.  The press reports regularly on cases
of rape, with victims, mostly girls, of increasingly younger
ages.  In 1993 the NRC amended the law to define as minors
those rape victims under the age of 18.  The Government
occasionally prosecutes rape cases, but convictions and
punishment are rare.  Observers attribute increasing reports of
child beating and molestation to the breakdown of the
traditional village family structure and to social dislocations
caused by war and urbanization.

Female genital mutilation is not widespread, but it is
practiced by some groups in eastern Uganda, notably the Sebei.
There is no law against the practice.  The Government and
women's groups are working to stop the practice through
education.

     National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities

Approximately 40 African ethnic groups constitute the vast
majority of the population of Uganda, with tiny percentages of
Asians and Europeans.  Asians, expelled by Idi Amin in the
early 1970's, have continued to return to Uganda under the
current Government's policy of adjudicating claims to
confiscated property.

Ethnic divisions between Bantu-speaking peoples in the south
and Nilotic speakers in the north have been aggravated by civil
conflict since Uganda's independence.  However, only a few
minority populations have truly suffered discrimination, such
as the Pygmies and the Bakonjo of the Ruwenzori mountains, who
were once slaves within the traditional kingdoms, and the
Karamajong, independent cattle herders in eastern Uganda, whom
other Ugandans consider to be violent and underdeveloped.  None
of these groups participates fully in Ugandan society,
government, or educational institutions.

     People with Disabilities

The law does not mandate accessibility to buildings or
government services for the disabled.  Widespread
discrimination by society and employers limits job and
educational opportunities for those with physical
disabilities.  A small office within the Ministry of Local
Government tries to assist disabled Ugandans but lacks
sufficient funding.

Section 6  Worker Rights

     a.  The Right of Association

There is no single labor code, but a combination of laws
provides for the right of workers to form unions, and since
1993 this right has been extended to civil servants.  However,
many "essential" government employees are still not permitted
to form unions; these include the police, army, permanent
secretaries in the ministries, heads of departments and
state-owned enterprises, school principals, and other
management level officials.

The National Organization of Trade Unions (NOTU), the largest
labor federation, includes 15 unions and is independent of the
Government and political parties.  NOTU's influence on the
overall economy remains marginal, since about 90 percent of the
work force consists of peasant farmers.  According to the
1988-89 census, about 20 percent of an estimated 400,000
workers in the industrial or modern wage sector of the economy
are unionized.  There is almost no unionization in the large
agricultural sector, much of which is subsistence farming.

At the end of the year, Ugandan labor law was undergoing major
reshaping pending introduction of the new constitution.  A
tripartite committee composed of several government ministries,
NOTU, and the Federation of Uganda Employers, reviewed draft
implementing legislation covering such subjects as a minimum
wage, dispute resolution mechanisms, and occupational health
and safety standards.

The law provides for the right to strike, but the Government
insists that labor and management (often a government entity)
make every effort to reconcile labor disputes before resorting
to strike action.  If reconciliation is not possible, labor
must submit its grievances and notice to strike to the Minister
of Labor, who, under the Trade Disputes Arbitration and
Settlement Act, has the option of referring the dispute to the
Industrial Court.  There is no law prohibiting retribution
against strikers.

There were at least 20 strikes among both unionized and
nonunionized labor, including those by doctors and health
workers, railway workers, teachers, university professors, and
taxi drivers.

Labor unions freely exercise the right to affiliate with and
participate in regional and international labor organizations.

     b.  The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

The law provides for the right to organize and bargain
collectively, but true collective bargaining takes place only
in the small private sector of the modern (wage) economy.  In
the modern sector, the Government is by far the largest
employer (civil service and state-owned enterprises) and it
dominates the bargaining process.  The Government has, however,
adopted a tripartite (government-employers-labor) cooperative
approach to setting wages and resolving labor issues.  Both the
Government and employers may refer disputes to the Industrial
Court.  The law does not prohibit antiunion discrimination by
employers, but there were no reported incidents of government
harassment of union officials.

There are no export processing zones.

     c.  Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

The law prohibits compulsory labor.  However, there is evidence
that forced prison labor is employed on private farms and
construction sites.

     d.  Minimum Age for Employment of Children

Employers are prohibited by law from recruiting workers below
the age of 18, and there is no child labor in the formal
sector, including the export industries.  However, many
children are employed in the informal sector, often on family
subsistence farms or, in urban areas selling small wares on the
streets, or working as domestics.  The Ministry of Social
Services is charged with enforcing the Law on Child Labor, but
does so only in the industrial sector.  There are no minimum
education requirements.

     e.  Acceptable Conditions of Work

Neither the law nor the Government sets an explicit minimum
wage policy.  Wages are set by negotiation between unions and
employers or by the boards of directors of state-owned
industries.  Salaries are usually combined with other
incentives (housing, transport allowances) which often equal
base wages.  The Ministry of Labor's salary scale for civil
servants starts with unskilled labor earning $44 to $77 per
month (40,000 to 70,000 shillings), skilled labor (such as
clerks or drivers) $55 to $133 per month (50,000 to 120,000
shillings), supervisor $155 to $333 per month (140,000 to
300,000 shillings), all with paid overtime.  The higher end of
these salaries would begin to support a family.  However, wages
in general are insufficient to support a family, and many civil
servants and other workers must find second jobs, grow their
own food, or seek other ways to feed their families.

Although there is no legal maximum workweek, the normal
workweek is 40 hours, and time and a half is paid for each
additional hour worked.

The only occupational health and safety legislation is
contained in the outdated Factories Act of 1954, which does not
address many present-day working hazards, such as permitting
workers to excuse themselves from dangerous work situations
without jeopardy to continued employment.  The Ministry of
Labor's Department of Occupational Health is responsible for
enforcement, but in practice inspections are rare.