7.4. THE UGANDA PRISONS SERVICE

amended by Act No.16/2006, states that a member of the public is entitled without prejudice to any legal redress available to him/her to make a complaint against any police officer. The PSU provides a platform for such complaints. The key PSU functions are to among others, act as an in-house mechanism for addressing complaints against police officers and handle specific investigations into alleged professional misconduct within the Uganda Police Force.

Use of police parades

Empowerment of police officers requires that police officers are equipped with adequate knowledge and skills to prevent torture. This entails equipping them with relevant information on the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ when relating with suspects during arrest and while in detention. It is common practice for all police stations to train the police officers about torture prevention during the Monday and Wednesday parades. However, this has been noted as inadequate. ‘What we need is to ensure that all police officers are equipped from the onset with the requisite human rights knowledge. CSOs should support the police by training police officers in training schools as well especially on the Human Rights Enforcement Act, 2019 and the Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act, 2012. The Human Rights (Enforcement) Act, 2019 provides for among others, personal liability for infringement of rights and freedoms.

7.4. Uganda Prisons Service

The Uganda Prisons Service scaled out human rights committees; for both inmates and staff, within prisons and human rights desks to counter abuse and impunity. The human rights committees are an oversight and accountability mechanism within prisons. The Uganda Prisons Service maintains a 100% coverage of human rights committees in all its 253 prison units.97 It established thirteen (13) new human rights desks and committees to monitor and supervise the observance of human rights within staff and inmates.

However, in the course of this research, incidences of torture were reported. 71% of the inmates alleged to have witnessed torture in prisons with 29% reported to not having witnessed the same. Below are the findings per prison.

Table 16: Torture prevalence in prisons (Source: Baseline survey data)

Fellow inmates were the major perpetrators of torture (77%) followed by prison warders (33%). However, interviews with the inmates alluded that fellow inmates perpetrate torture on the instructions of the prison warders. An inmate at Kigo male prison had this to say: The wardens instruct our leaders to beat us. The leader can even slap or beat you when the prison wardens are present. Directive to cane usually comes from the prison wardens.

Nonetheless, it was noted that there is a glaring disparity between policy and practice. Despite the establishment and said functionality of these committees, none of the inmates that alleged torture within prison had reported to the committee members.

Kato, a 30-year-old mechanic from Salama: ‘I have been on remand for 1 year and 8 months. At Kigo there is physical torture by prison warders. If one person disobeys their instructions, they beat up every other person in the same ward. There is no mechanism of reporting our grievances against prison warders.’

Of the 71% respondents who witnessed torture, 47% alluded to how reporting is so complex, (in terms of who to report to), 12% fell under the category of always trying to report while 10% noted that they report to either ward leaders or prison warders.

Figure 16: Torture reporting trends (Source: Baseline survey data)

This may partly be due to fear for reprisal or general lack of awareness of the mandate of the human rights committees.

According to the Uganda Human Rights Commission annual reports, torture has been the most commonly reported human rights violation from 2012 to date. The African Centre for the Rehabilitation and Treatment of Torture Victims (ACTV) also recorded an average of 1,090 torture survivors between 2016-2017.

Table 17: Torture prevalence (Source: UHRC Annual Human Rights Reports, 2012-2018)

Figure 17: Torture complaints registered by UHRC (Source: UHRC Annual Human Rights Reports, 2012-2018)

From the reports, the Uganda Police Force, Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces and the Uganda Prisons Service have been cited as the main perpetrators of torture.

These institutions have set up Human Rights Committees/ desks to counter human rights violations within their detention facilities.