Article
Uganda: Growing Intimidation, Threats to Civil Society
Research and advocacy organizations in Uganda that deal with controversial topics are facing increasing harassment by Uganda’s government...Groups have recently faced forced closure of meetings, threats, harassment, arrest, and punitive bureaucratic interference... The...report...documents increasing government attacks on organizations whose focus includes oil revenue transparency, land acquisition compensation...and protection of human rights, particularly the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people...The government requires any organization to seek written permission...each time they seek to visit the oil region, even though no law or publicly available policy requires [this]...These policies and practices obstruct access to affected communities and inhibit research and advocacy on oil accountability and transparency. [refers to govt. investigation into research of group that documents unlawful land acquisitions (Uganda Land Alliance) & threat of deregistration over a report by the group; govt. accusation that group (AFIEGO) working to help local communities receive fair compensation for land used in a large-scale electricity project was “bordering on sabotage of government programs”]