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The United Nations’ human rights office in Uganda will close this weekend after the East African country decided not to renew an agreement allowing it to operate, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Friday. The closure comes amid concern over human rights violations including extrajudicial killings in Uganda and a new law that prescribes the death penalty for some homosexual acts. The office in Kampala will formally cease operations on Saturday, while sub-offices in Gulu and Moroto closed at the end of June and on Monday respectively. “I regret that our office in Uganda had to close after 18 years, during which we were able to work closely with civil society, people from various walks of life in Uganda, as well as engaging with state institutions for the promotion and protection of the human rights of all Ugandans,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in a statement from Geneva. The closure was prompted by the government’s decision not to renew the host ...

What Makes Men Attack Children? What makes men attack children? The most treasured resource Shattering the present and the future That we want so much to treasure. What do they achieve? A moment of illgotten power ? Grieving parents, broken families and communities? Will destruction of their own society achieve their cause? They forget, bullets destroy trust In the eyes of innocent victims They are but cowardly heartless cruel adults. - Sree Gururaja ‘A Terrible Tragedy’: Uganda Reels From Deadly Terrorist Attack It was one of the worst terrorist acts to hit the nation in decades, as militants burned down dormitories with students still inside and hacked others to death. The militants reached the private boarding school compound just before midnight, as students were going to bed, on a partly cloudy night in a small town in the lush western fields of Uganda. First, they shot the school’s guard in the head before they went to the students’ dormitories. When they could not enter the boy...

Financial fallout Click here for the DEVEX Newswire edition from which this is excerpted The uproar over Uganda’s widely condemned anti-homosexuality law continues as two major institutions consider yanking billions of dollars in aid to a country where being gay could be a death sentence. The World Bank and USAID are now rethinking their assistance to the East African country, whose longtime president, Yoweri Museveni, signed a law last Friday that could lead to the death penalty for people found guilty of “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as same-sex acts involving people living with HIV or minors, among others. “We are reviewing our portfolio of projects and next steps,” outgoing World Bank President David Malpass exclusively told Shabtai, adding that the new law is an “affront to the values of the World Bank.” Meanwhile, my colleague Omar Mohammed reports that USAID Administrator Samantha Power described the law as “an unconscionable attack on an already marginalized group” and...

The draconian law foresees the application of the death penalty and long prison sentences for consensual sex between adults. Non-discrimination principle Mr. Guterres called on Uganda to fully respect its international human rights obligations, “in particular the principle of non-discrimination and the respect for personal privacy”, irrespective of sexual orientation and gender identity. He also called on all Member States to end the criminalization of consensual same-sex relations. According to the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS, such criminalization continues in 67 countries around the world, with 10 still imposing the death penalty. Undermining development Just last week, the UN rights chief Volker Türk said that anti-LGBTQI laws like Uganda’s “drive people against one another, leave people behind and undermine development”. In a statement released at the end of March, when the Ugandan parliament first adopted the legislation, he described the discriminatory bill as a “deeply troub...

Editor's Note: There is deep concern in the international community over a bill passed Tuesday night by Uganda's Parliament and sent to President Museveni for signature. Most observers expect that the President will sign the bill into law. The bill includes penalties up to life imprisonment and the death penalty. Family members and neighbors are required to report on suspected homosexual behaviour, leading to threats and blackmail of those suspected.  Though it is too early to see the consequences of such a law, they are likely to include some very serious setbacks for children, whatever their gender or sexual orientation may be.  Amnesty International says, "This deeply repressive legislation will institutionalise discrimination, hatred, and prejudice against LGBTI people - including those who are perceived to be LGBTI - and block the legitimate work of civil society, public health professionals, and community leaders," said Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty Internationa...

Yoweri Museveni’s government has, over the years, been criticised by the opposition and activists for rights violations. Click here for the original article Uganda has said it will not renew the mandate of the United Nations human rights office in the East African country, citing the development of its own sufficient capacity to monitor rights compliance. In a letter sent by Uganda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on February 3 and seen by Reuters on Wednesday, the ministry noted progress Uganda had made in developing a domestic capacity to monitor rights as the main reason for its decision. “The ministry wishes to convey the government’s decision not to renew the mandate of the OHCHR Country office in Uganda beyond the current term,” said the letter, which the ministry confirmed to Reuters as authentic. OHCHR Uganda country office spokesperson Bernard Amwine told Reuters he had no comment. President Yoweri Museveni’s gov...