Torture Uganda's biggest human rights violation: report

By Halima Athumani

KAMPALA, Uganda

Torture remains the most recorded human rights violation in Uganda with the police accounting for a majority of the incidents, according to a report released Thursday by the Human Rights Commission.

"Whereas there is a comprehensive legal regime that prevents and prohibits torture, this violation is still persistent and rampant," Chairman Katebalirwe Amooti said, adding torture had been used as a means to justice.

According to the report, a total of 1,658 cases of torture were registered between 2012 and 2016.

Torture has been used as an investigative technique to extract confessions and information from suspects of crime in order to secure easy convictions, the report said.

It is also used as a means of "social control and political repression to oppress the opposition, journalists, human rights activists and other groups of people deemed unfavorable to the ruling party".

The report said that torture was perpetrated by security agents responsible for upholding and enforcing the law. Since 2012, the Uganda Police alone had 1,016 torture complaints against it while the Uganda People’s Defence Forces followed closely with 275 cases.

Some of the forms of torture captured in the report include physical and psychological suffering from beatings, rape and the pulling out of fingernails. Others include electric shocks, mock executions, pepper sprays, denial of food and the shame of being stripped naked in the public.

Army spokesman Richard Karemire told journalists that taking second position was a "huge improvement".

"In the past, the army was always number one in terms of killing people, torture and causing disappearance of citizens," he said, adding the army would implement the recommendations and work within the parameters of the laws.

"We will continue training our officers and operatives within the law so that some of the mistakes committed are not reported."