Moroto | 6 September 2022: The UN Human Rights Office in Uganda, in partnership with Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC), held a meeting with civil society organizations (CSOs) to foster collaboration and communication to advance efforts of promoting and protecting human rights in Karamoja sub-region.
A total of 22 participants (15 men and seven women) attended the meeting. The meeting focused on the mandate and work of the UHRC and UN Human Rights in Uganda and exchange of experiences and practices in human rights monitoring and advocacy.
Mr. Paul Piramoe, the Regional Human Rights Officer at Moroto Regional Office of the UHRC explained how the complaint handling procedure works and urged participants to sensitize community members on availability of such redress mechanism to address human rights violations.
Mr. Peter Lotee, Program Analyst at UN Human Rights field office in Moroto underscored the mandate of the UN Human Rights office which include monitoring the human rights situation and allegations of human rights violations reported in coordination with UHRC, facilitating a constructive dialogue among State institutions for the implementation of applicable human rights standards and providing technical assistance and capacity-building to State and non-state institutions.
During the session on human rights monitoring and advocacy, participants discussed the methods and approaches for monitoring human rights issues and concerns with examples. Emphasis was put on the importance of investigative interviewing approach which would enable one to obtain accurate, detailed, and reliable information in monitoring individual cases of human rights violations and abuses.
The local human rights defenders raised concerns about the rampant human rights violations in the course of the disarmament operations such as arbitrary arrest and detention and torture, delayed processes of investigation and complaint handling by responsible institutions, threats and intimidation of human rights defenders by law enforcement officers, limited engagement of human rights institutions in the areas of conservation and natural resource management as well as the negligence of government officials including at health facilities causing adverse impact on the enjoyment of human rights.
OHCHR appreciates the critical mission of human rights defenders to help empower people to realize their rights and is continuously committed to creating and sustaining a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders as envisaged in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.