ENOUGH IS ENOUGH:-- WE WANT ACTION ON CORRUPTION NOW!

Fellow Citizens of Uganda:

The President of Uganda, His Excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has over the years publically condemned corruption and promised zero tolerance to theft in public offices. This was supposed to be exemplified through the setup of the Anti-Corruption Court and the National Strategy to fight Corruption, the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity in the President’s Office, among other institutions put in place to fight corruption. What has emerged is that, we have too many institutions and yet we see no concrete action on corruption.

Uganda’s children continue to die of malaria, malnutrition, nodding disease and many other preventable diseases while our leaders and technocrats shamelessly loot with greed the money meant to provide medicine for our children. Our teachers sleep hungry and our children have no lunch at school, our policemen sleep like dogs and are paid peanuts, our doctors, nurses and midwives are underpaid, unpaid and on strike, our youth remain unemployed and helpless and we lose 16 of our mothers daily due to poor maternal health, while lots of money meant to address our plight as Ugandans is stolen day and night by individuals who time and again have been left scot free. Why should innocent Ugandans pay with their lives for injustices perpetrated by publically known robbers, pickpockets, burglars and thieves? We are tired of losing Ugandans from preventable death. We want Action on Corruption.

We strongly believe there is enough for the needs of every Ugandan but not enough for the greed of public servants entrusted to manage resources responsibly for the good of all Ugandans. This unacceptably shameful, draconian, uncivil form of conduct must be stopped in the greater interest of ensuring meaningful development for all Ugandans.

Safeguarding Adolescent Sexual and Reoproductive Health

Adolescence is a period of transition from childhood to adulthood that happens between the ages of 10-19 years. This is the stage when most young people begin to explore their sexuality and have intimate relationships. Engaging in sexual activities at this stage is risky as it exposes adolescents to early pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexually transmitted infections, and sexual violence.

It has been reported that problems associated with pregnancy are a leading cause of death among the adolescents. In addition, sexual coercion is a widespread phenomenon as evidenced by the fact that in some countries between 20% and 48% of young women aged 10-25 years have been forced to have sex.

Most young people cannot protect themselves since they lack information on where to go for adolescent sexual reproductive health care, and the majority are not empowered enough to negotiate for safe sex with their partners. In addition, most youth particularly the girls are under pressure to marry and produce children at such an early stage in their life.

What should be done?

INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY OUTREACH AT KYAMBOGO COLLEGE SCHOOL

Civil Society Leaders Denounce the Continued Police Brutality, Lack of Accountability, professionalism and Impunity in the Security Forces.

Date:               23^rd April, 2012

Contact:          Uganda Governance Monitoring Platform (UGMP)

                        info@ngoforum.or.ug

                        +256 414 510 272

Civil Society Leaders Denounce the Continued Police Brutality, Lack of Accountability, professionalism and Impunity in the Security Forces.

“The fact that a crime within the jurisdiction of the Court has been committed by a person pursuant to an order of a Government or of a superior, whether military or civilian, shall not relieve that person of criminal responsibility unless: (a) The person was under a legal obligation to obey orders of the Government or the superior in question; (b) The person did not know that the order was unlawful; and(c) The order was not manifestly unlawful.  2. For the purposes of this article, orders to commit genocide or crimes against humanity are manifestly unlawful.” – Article 33 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

We the leaders of civil society in Uganda strongly condemn the increasing use of barbaric and uncivil methods by security agencies while claiming to manage public order. The most recent of these incidents was the brutal and insensitive fondling of FDC women league chairperson, Ingrid Turinawe’s breasts on Friday 20th April 2012. This particular incident is one of many attempts by the police to publically harm and humiliate the same citizens who they have a constitutional mandate to protect and safeguard. We note that this incident occurs in the context of an increasingly militarized police force whose viciousness has been questioned by the public but condoned by the state. Such incidents inevitably depict a rapidly deteriorating governance order.

This shameless display of state brutality and use of sexual assault and molestation was perceivably meant to intimidate and threaten Ugandans of good will who might attempt to blow the whistle on the excesses of the state. Such brutal acts by a public security agency denote a state thoughtless of dignity and sanctity of human life