Zimbabwe delegation in Uganda to benchmark on human rights  at UHRC

A nine-man delegation from Zimbabwe’s human rights commission has visited their Ugandan counterparts for best practices in human rights observance.

The delegation on Tuesday interacted with the Ugandan team headed by commissioner, Shifra Lukwago who represented the chairperson, Mariam Wangadya.

Speaking during the meeting, Lukwago told the team that UHRC gets its mandate from Article 51 of the Ugandan constitution as the government body mandate to oversee enforcement of human rights in the country.

“We are a commission that respects human rights and what we strive to do is to protect and promote fundamental human rights and freedoms in Uganda. At UHRC we have our corporate values as we stand on integrity, transparency and human rights. We ensure fairness in execution of our mandate while dignity of people is central in our work,” she said.

The commissioner said among their duties is visiting detention centres to check on observance of human rights as well authoring annual reports which are handed over to parliament for debate.

She told the Zimbabwean team that the commission currently has 12 regional offices and 12 district offices, noting that they would wish to have at least an office in every district but are constrained by resources.

Speaking after the meeting, the head of the Zimbabwean delegation, Martin Muduva said their team was impressed by what they had observed.

He said the meeting was aimed at deepening their understanding of human rights and ensure collaborative efforts between the two countries.

“We have learnt something in regarding the enforcement of human rights that we too can take on and advise authorities back home on what to do better,” Muduva said.