Human rights activists call for abolition of death penalty in Uganda

Uganda has today joined the rest of the world to mark the 21st World Day against the Death penalty, with human rights activists calling for its abolition in Uganda.

The Chairperson for the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, Fox Odoi, speaking to Charmar News at a function held at the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative offices in Nsambya, stressed the need to abolish the death penalty and implement life imprisonment to give people a chance to reform.

“Innocent people have been convicted and executed. The wrongful execution of an innocent person is an injustice that can never be rectified,”

In his speech at the event, Executive Director Foundation for Human Rights Initiative, Dr Living stone Ssewanyana, observed that the death penalty law is obsolete and cannot apply in this current world of justice.

“Since 2009, approximately 18 people have been released from the death row, after being found innocent, noting that these women and men could have been executed,”

Dr Ssewanyana noted that a number of people are rotting in prisons with over 124 people waiting to be hanged three of them being women.

The day is being commemorated under the theme” Consolidating and sustaining human rights culture into future.”

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Uganda. It was last executed in 2005. However, the country is considered “Retentionist” due to a lack of “an established practice or policy against carrying out executions.

In Uganda, 28 crimes can attract the death penalty – including robbery, smuggling, acts of treason and terrorism, and non-lethal military sentences, and death sentences continue to be handed out after judicial proceedings which fail to meet international standards for a fair trial.