Activists Decry Closure of UN Human Rights Office in Uganda

Activists and opposition party leaders in Uganda have cried foul at the government's decision to close the country's UN human rights office. The mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ended on February 9, 2023 - three years after it was last renewed. The government announced on February 3, 2023 that due to the prevailing peace throughout the country, coupled with strong national human rights institutions and a vibrant civil society with the capacity to monitor, promote and protect human rights in Uganda, it would not renew the mandate of the office.

Rights groups have in the past criticised the government for not upholding freedom of expression and human rights standards. In February 2021, after Uganda's general elections, Bobi Wine, the leader of the opposition National Unity Party platform, delivered a petition to the U.N. human rights office in Kampala. The petition was to protest human rights abuses and abductions of his supporters in the run-up to and after, that year's presidential election, won by President Yoweri Museveni. Journalists covering the petition were beaten up in front of the office.

The Kampala office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was established in 2006 to focus on the human rights situation in conflict-affected areas in north and eastern Uganda but was later expanded to the rest of the country.