By Denis
Angeri
Project
Support, Alternatives Project
Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI)
Uganda has ratified a number of international and regional treaties and conventions including the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which legally obliges the state to protect the rights of all children including those who are in conflict and in contact with the law.
At the national level the Children’s Act Cap. 59, has put in place full safeguards for the rights of all children in the country. The adoption of the Children’s Act was a giant stride forward in harmonising national laws with international treaties which Uganda has signed and ratified.
The Children’s Act has immensely improved the lives of many Ugandan children. It guarantees their rights to health and medical care, of which are the responsibility of the parents, the extended family and the government. The provisions of the Children’s Act also empower the police to caution and release child offenders without recourse to formal hearings thus taking on a more rehabilitative approach.
The legal framework also supports separate juvenile courts, although in practice such courts are not “separate” from the usual criminal courts that are used by adults.
Nonetheless, there are still a number of problems to surmount. Uganda’s severe economic and social difficulties have prevented the full realization of children’s rights, and there is concern over the inadequate enforcement of legislation to ensure the ‘physical and mental integrity’ of all children.
Street children are of particular concern. Today’s toxic combination of economic and social factors is forcing more and more children to continue pouring into the streets throughout the country. According to a report released by Human Rights Watch on 17 July 2014 titled Where Do You Want Us to Go?’ Abuses against Street Children in Uganda, Uganda is failing to protect particularly homeless children against police abuse and other violence. Street children throughout Uganda’s urban centers face violence, and physical and sexual abuse.
A considerable percentage of children appearing before the juvenile courts are street children with some arrested for committing crimes, and some taken in to be ‘processed’ by the care and protection system.
Although the care and protection system is conceptually separate from the criminal justice system, the two systems appear to merge in practice. Both groups of children are picked up and held in the same police cells, and are treated similarly at courts. Rights and advocacy groups, especially ANPPCAN, are alarmed about the physical and sexual abuse of Ugandan street children and the increasing burden of HIV/AIDS on orphans that prematurely forces them into adult roles; coupled with inadequate access to education, especially for girl children.
