Uganda: Our Top 2015 Human Rights Stories Told In Tweets

During the year, we shared several human rights stories on our twitter page. We now look back to the start of the year and put together a curation of tweets posted in 2015 by Chapter Four Uganda twitterati and other partners.

The recurring theme in the fight for human rights in 2015 in Uganda centered around the legislative process of the repressive NGO Bill, 2015; violations of rights of journalists and bloggers; arbitrary arrests and illegal detention of human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists; the rise of 'crime preventers' and the crackdown on freedom of expression and assembly ahead of 2016 general elections; and the chilling violations of rights of sexual minorities in Uganda's criminal justice system.

State sanctioned investigations into operations of CSOs, indecent assault and stripping of a female opposition leader, nude protests in defence of rights, passing of the Anti-Terrorism (Amendment) Bill 2015 with repressive clauses despite of the vehement opposition protestations over lack of quorum, and the state ‘Fungua Macho’ surveillance program also featured prominently. 

Key hashtags of discussions around these themes included #EndPoliceBrutalityUG #NGOBill #NGOBillUg #FunguaMacho #ImpunityUG and #UgandaDecides

Several highlights were also marked during the year. Notably, our Founding director Nicholas Opiyo was presented with the prestigious Human Rights Watch Alison Des Forges award for extra-ordinary activism. We thank you and all our partners for the generous support in the defence of civil rights during the year. We are humbled by this recognition and look forward to continue defending rights in 2016 for a better, tolerant, inclusive, and free world.

Here below is the flashback to take note as we look forward to #DefendRights2016.

NGO BILL 2015: The most recurrent theme revolved around the freedom of association. After government tabled the Non-Governmental Organisations Bill 2015 (NGO Bill) in Parliament, civil society actors embarked on extensive advocacy and lobbying activities during the legislative process up until the time when the Bill was passed by Parliament later in the year. Although Parliament adopted several proposals for amendment, the Bill was finally passed with several repressive clauses.

Click here to read the full article as published on our storify account.