Uganda has an estimated rate of 54 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age. This is far higher than the average of 36 abortions per 1,000 women for the entire East African region.

According Dr. Mbonye commissioner for community health, Ministry of Health, in Emergency obstetric care as the priority intervention to reduce maternal mortality in Uganda, approximately 40% of admissions for emergency obstetric care in Uganda are as a result of unsafe abortion. This according to him cost the health system an estimated 7.5 billion shillings annually to treat complications from unsafe abortion.

On the other hand, the contraceptive prevalence in Uganda has remained low with only 30% of married women and 38% for the unmarried sexually active women using family planning. This has contributed to 50% of the 1.2 million unwanted pregnancies received each year which in many cases result into unsafe abortions.

There have been major efforts from the Ministry of Health with partners to address the major causes of maternal mortality in Uganda such as post-partum bleeding, obstructed labour, infection related to childbirth(sepsis), pregnancy-induced high blood pressure(Eclampsia or pre-eclampsia) and abortion-related complications. As a result, the Ministry of Health together with partners came to an agreement to develop standards and guidelines for the reduction of morbidity and mortality from unsafe abortion to guide health workers in the prevention and management of unsafe abortion.

In an effort to engage high level stakeholders and policy makers, the Ministry of Health in partnership with Ipas Africa Alliance, and the Center for health human rights and development (CEHURD) within the Coalition to Stop Maternal Mortality due to Unsafe Abortion (CSMMUA) convened a 2 day residential sensitization meeting for parliamentarians on ending unsafe abortion in Uganda on 16th -17th, May 2014 at Lake Victoria Serena Hotel in Kigo, Entebbe.

The meeting was very successful and had an attendance of over 35 high level stakeholders including members of parliament and Ministry of Health representatives. The meeting that was aimed at sharing information and seeking a way forward to address the public health crisis of unsafe abortion and its contribution to maternal deaths in Uganda saw great commitment from members of parliament who pledged to advocate and sensitize their constituencies to reduce the number of mothers who die from unsafe abortion.

The meeting also provided an opportunity to reflect upon Uganda’s regional and international commitments to women’s sexual and reproductive health as well as best practices across the continent towards reducing unsafe abortions as a major contributor to maternal mortality and morbidity and how far the government has implemented or made an effort to achieve the set targets and what members of parliament could do to hold the government accountable for maternal deaths.

PRESS RELEASE
29th April, 2014

For Immediate Release

Kampala, Uganda – Civil Society Organizations working on the HIV Prevention and Control Bill of 2010 Today take a stand to ask parliamentarians to affirm and support the Health committee’s report on proposed deletion of Mandatory Testing for HIV, Mandatory Disclosure of HIV status from The HIV Bill. We also wish to express disapproval of Parliament’s move to pass a law providing for provisions on Criminalization of intentional transmission of HIV/AIDS. Read FULL PRESS RELEASE

Uganda has today joined the rest of the world to celebrate the World Intellectual property (IP) Day which annually falls on the 26th of April. The Day is intended to promote discussion on the role of intellectual property in encouraging innovation and creativity. The International Intellectual Property day is cerebrated on the 26th April but since it fell on Saturday, the celebrations in Uganda were pulled to Thursday 24th April, and were held at the National Theatre gardens in Kampala.

This year the focus has been put on Movies under the theme “Movies: A Global Passion”. This is aimed at uplifting the movies in the world, their role in a society and their impact on development in a country.

The cerebrations in Uganda under the theme “Emerging opportunities for Uganda” involved a match from the offices of the Uganda Registrations Services Bureau (URSB) to the National Theatre where Exhibitions, Speeches, and skits were performed. The celebrations were concluded with a show of a Ugandan Movie in the National Theatre Auditorium in the afternoon.

As a human rights organisation whose objective among others is to ensure that there is a

balance between Intellectual Property Rights and Public interest, we organized a press briefing on Intellectual Property on Wednesday 23rd, 2014 at Fairway Hotel in Kampala. This was in partnership with HEPs Uganda under the Coalition to Promote Access to Medicines and during the media briefing, 20 journalists were present as was the Director of Intellectual property at URSB, Ms Juliet Nassuna who officiated the briefing. To ensure a balance between Intellectual Property and public interest,  Ms Primah Kwagala, Programme Manager at CEHURD made a Key note presentation to the media on key issues to note on Intellectual Property, access to medicines and related Public Interest Concerns to note on World Intellectual Property Day.

During the exhibition at National theater, CEHURD focused on popularizing the Creative Commons (CC) licences the organisation has been working on and this was done by utilising the several IEC materials on Intellectual Property and Access to Medicines, that were show cased at the organisation booth where different people got a chance to interact on the public needs of Intellectual property enforcement.

Over the past two years the Center for Health Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) has been running a fellowship program Mentoring Journalists in mainstream and digital media  in Uganda to report issues of Intellectual Property (IP) and Human Rights effectively. This program focused on social welfare aspects of IP including balancing Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) with Public Interest.

Given that background, CEHURD calls upon Concepts from IP media Fellows and Journalists in Mainstream and digital media to participate in a competitive bid to do investigative stories on the effect of Intellectual Property Rights and Public Interest concerns of Ugandans. Please find the CALL FOR CONCEPTS 

Activists in Kampala representing health, HIV/AIDS, human rights, and women’s organizations have today gathered in Kampala at the Supreme Court of Uganda as a panel of Justices begin hearing a Constitutional appeal against Constitutional Court’s ruling that it could not determine whether by mothers dying in child birth is a violation of their constitutionally guaranteed rights. The Constitutional Court in 2012 decided that matters brought before it by Center for health Human rights and others, did not fall into its mandate of interpreting the Constitution but a preserve of the Executive and Legislature. The Court termed this as a “Political question doctrine”.

Constitutional appeal No.1 of 2013 argues that the Constitutional court misapplied the “political question doctrine (doctrine of separation of powers) as this doctrine is one that cannot be applied in cases of violation of human rights.

“It’s such an old doctrine that prohibits one branch of government from interfering into work of another branch but this is not applicable to Uganda whose courts have an oversight role of checks and balances. It also doesn’t apply in cases of human rights violations like the one before court” Mulumba Moses, Executive Director, Center for Health, Human rights and Development (CEHURD)

The case, from which this appeal arises, Petition Number 16 of 2011, argued that by not providing essential medical commodities and health services to pregnant women, the Government is violating the Constitutional rights of Ugandans, including the right to health, the right to life, and the rights of women. The Petition highlights the case of Sylvia Nalubowa, a mother in Mityana and of Jennifer Anguko, a mother and District Councilor in Arua, both of whom died in childbirth. Members of the families of the deceased women are also present for the hearing.

Many reports of additional maternal deaths from across Uganda have come to light since the groundbreaking case was filed on 3 March 2011.16 women in Uganda die each day in childbirth!

“We believe justices of the Supreme Court have a role to play in preventing such deaths” Nakibuuka Noor, CEHURD.