Volume 2. Issue 5 | Jan - Mar 2016 A Voice for the indigent persons in Uganda LASPNET Board Chairperson, Mr. Samuel Herbert Nsubuga and LASPNET Executive Director, Ms. Sylvia Namubiru Mukasa at a Press Conference on Election related concerns at the Secretariat on 29th February 2016. ELECTORAL VICTIMS RECEIVE RAPID LEGAL RESPONSE MORE How significant was filing the Amici Curiae motion? Cost Benefit Analysis Child Friendly Legal Aid Manual Launched Research On The National Legal Aid Policy Achieving Child-friendly Justice Debate on Marriage Capacity Building Interventions and Divorce Extending Legal Aid To Local Governments www.laspnet.org MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR welcome you to under the SAJCEA program. yet another edition She has since returned to I of the Network Canada having spent six newsletter where we months with us at LASPNET. share the highlights As a child rights advocate, for the period January this development is exciting to March 2016. because I know many of our lawyers will use this manual Uganda has to improve their service recently undergone delivery skills and approach presidential, to handling children in contact parliamentary and with the law. local government elections. LASPNET We have continued with has been actively efforts to advocate for the involved, especially in Legal Aid policy and Bill. observing the process Members validated the Cost under the CEON –U Benefit Analysis research for coalition, through the National Legal aid policy provision of a rapid legal on 21st January 2016 and Contents Pg response brief and joining recently on 6th May 2016, How Significant was 4 the CSOs coalition to file the the findings were launched filing theAmici curiae Amicus curie in the presidential by the Hon. Deputy Attorney motion? petition that ensued. We General Mwesigwa Rukutana. are happy to note that as a We believe that the findings Child Friendly Legal Aid 6 nation we emerged out of will provide the justification Manual Launched this process largely peaceful needed by Cabinet to fast save for a cross section of track the enactment of the Achieving Child-friendly 7 our society like Kasese where policy into law. Justice there were violent eruptions. Capacity Building 9 It is our hope that the sources We continue with our Interventions of conflicts will be ironed out advocacy in other areas by the leadership both cultural especially in finding more cost Extending Legal Aid To 12 and political. We congratulate effective ways to deliver legal Local Governments those who emerged victors aid as well as improved legal Stakeholders Validate 13 and look forward to a fruitful and policy framework for legal Cost Benefit Analysis leadership in the mandated aid. Find out more about our Research On The period. visit to Lwengo District and National Legal Aid the Divorce Law Symposium, Policy That aside, as LASPNET, we among other activities that continued to deliver on our transpired during the quarter. iGA, LASPNET and 14 mandate through several FIDA-Uganda Debate on capacity building interventions We thank you our members, Marriage and Divorce which have been provided stakeholders and development to the membership during partners for the unrelenting Pictorial 16 this quarter. Notably is the interest in seeing the network Upcoming Events 16 integrated information system get rooted and spread its training that was aimed at branches. Your overwhelming improving utilization of the support has brought us this system as well as fast tracking far, kept us on our toes and Publication Team enrollment of LASPs and ignites us to serve the network Sylvia Namubiru Mukasa addressing existing gaps in its to the best of our abilities. functionality as well as skilling Your comments play a great Jamidah Namuyanja our lawyers in trial advocacy . role in enabling us improve on future editions so kindly share I am pleased to report that we them via secretariat@laspnet. Contributors: launched a manual on child org Anna Du Vent friendly practices, a tool that Jamidah Namuyanja will be helpful for all those I wish you good reading!! dealing with childrens’ rights and their implementation. The Compiled by: development of this document was supported by Anna Du Jamidah Namuyanja, Vent, a legal intern with the ICDO LASPNET Canadian Bar Association Sylvia Namubiru Mukasa Members of the Citizen Election Observation Network of Uganda (CEON-U) with Eng.Badru Kigunddu (in blue checkered shirt),the Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission after a meeting to express their concerns regarding the conduct of the general elections on 18th /02/16. ELECTORAL VICTIMS RECEIVE RAPID LEGAL RESPONSE ganda went to the polls on 18th February from indiscriminate arrests and respect the 2016 to elect presidential and parliamentary dignity of the people, exercise impartiality and Urepresentatives for the country for the next expeditiously handle electoral offences and five years. provide information to ease the process among others. Given the tumultuous events in some parts of the country preceding these polls, LASPNET, Also notable was the call by Ms Sylvia Namubiru aided with the belief that the development of Mukasa, the Executive Director LASPNET, for an accountable society and the rule of law are the military to be withdrawn from the streets crucial for the long term peace and security of to restore a semblance of normalcy among Uganda, embarked on an exercise to provide Ugandans. rapid legal assistance/ support to victims of election related violence during and after the general elections. The network deployed 23 legal aid advocates drawn from its 47 members to provide support and ensure that Ugandans exercise their right to vote in an environment free from violence, intimidation, coercion and abuse of due process. At a press conference convened on 29th February 2016 at the Secretariat in Mengo, the Board Chairperson, Mr. Samuel Nsubuga, revealed that the advocates had reported over 260 cases of election related arrests with 15 people released on police bond. The charges related to the arrests included among others: unlawful assembly, voter bribery, rigging, failure LASPNET Board members and the Executive Director to comply with police orders and assault. address a Press Conference on Election related concerns at the Secretariat on 29th February 2016. LASPNET cautioned security agents against th committing excesses which ranged from On 12 March 2016, LASPNET joined 7 other civil arbitrary arrests, use of excessive force and society organizations under the umbrella of the continued abuse of due process. Citizen Election Observers Network (CEON-U) to file an application to be admitted as friends The Network recommended that all concerned of the court in the Presidential Election Petition institutions; respect the Constitution, desist No.1 of 2016 filed by the former presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi disputing the results www.laspnet.org 3 Continued from page 3 of the 2016 presidential elections. Although regional stakeholders’ dialogue to address the court dismissed it, a precedent was set for situation in the Rwenzori sub-region. similar applications to be filed in future. The dialogue held at the offices of the Uganda Other organisations that were part of the Human Rights Commission in Fort Portal application included; Foundation for Human was aimed at strengthening the network of Rights Initiative, Chapter Four Uganda, paralegals and legal aid service providers in Association of Women Lawyers in Uganda, assisting victims of human rights violations and Centre for Constitutional Governance, Human abuse, sharing knowledge and experiences on Rights Network Uganda, Transparency adherence to constitutionalism and the rule of International and Kituo kya Katiba Eastern law, building synergies as well as strengthening Africa. referral pathways as a rapid response mechanism in light of the tension surrounding the 2016 general elections. The LASPs also wanted to “The democratic election of a head of engage the Human Rights Commission and the state does not necessarily lead to security agencies on their roles and mandate improved human rights, if law enforcement regarding the protection and promotion of institutions are weak or if a culture of human rights. human rights and democratic governance has not been cultivated”- LASPNET press Participants recommended provision of psycho- statement, 29 February 2016. social support to victims of election related violence, use of traditional justice systems to address conflicts and also called on security agencies to allow paralegals and LASPs to On 21st March 2016, LASPNET supported the access detention centers and provide rapid Association of Human Rights Organizations response to the victims. in Rwenzori (AHURIO) to convene a half day R-L: Ms. Sylvia Namubiru Mukasa, ED LASPNET, Ms.Irene Ovonji Odida, ED FIDA Uganda and Mr. Mohammad Ndifuna, ED HURINET leaving the Supreme Court after the filing of the Amici Curiae application. 4 The Network | Jan - Mar 2016 Why did Civil Society file the Amici Curiae motion, and how significant was it? Nicholas Opio is a Ugandan Human Rights Activist, and their participation in the administration Advocate of the High Court and Executive Director of of justice in this country particularly in a Chapter Four Uganda. He was also co-counsel for the presidential election petition. It also opened hearing of the Amici Curiae (Friends of Court) motion a new era of litigation that CSOs must take filed by seven civil society organisations in relation to the advantage of because we have within this Presidential Election petition no.1 of 2016. He talked to realm expertise and unique information that we Jamidah Namuyanja, the LASPNET Communication and can bring to bear in the pursuit of justice. We Documentation Officer, about its significance for CSOs have to develop capacity and understanding and the country at large and the way forward in the of the process of filing amicus curiae as a new aftermath of the 2016 general elections. litigation industry because in the future they are bound to be many and CSOs must be ready to take on the challenge.