By Serunjogi Francis and Nsereko Ibrahim

Today 25th July 2013 the Center for health Human rights and Development (CEHURD) together with other CSOs working on health and human rights issues have held a press conference at CEHURD offices in Kamwokya to strongly condemn the continuous violation of fundamental human rights in health facilities.

During the press conference, members have called upon the Judiciary to pronounce itself on violations of the right to health, access to health information, right to a family and rights of the child.

This follows a case filed by the Center for Health, Human rights and Development (CEHURD) together with Mubangizi Micheal and Musimenta Jennifer in the High Court of Uganda (Civil Suit No. 212 of 2013) against the office of the Executive Director of Mulago National Referral Hospital and the Attorney General for Violation of fundamental human rights guaranteed in the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda of 1995.

In that case the plaintiffs state that by denying the couple access to their medical records, opportunity to nurture and bring up their child, taking away their child without permission coupled with the daily mental anguish and agony they go through because of denial to access their child or its body which is a violation of their Constitutional rights and the defendants are answerable.

“I gave birth to two babies, but I was only given one. I was denied my child or its body and they even denied me my medical records. I am traumatized and psychologically tortured every day of my life every time I look at my other child. I know my child isn’t dead, she is alive. I am afraid of giving birth in hospitals”, says Musimenta Jennifer, the mother to the missing child.

With the uncertainty as to the whereabouts of their Child or its body, the Couple tirelessly searched for their child but only to be given a fresh body after three days. They resorted to undertaking a DNA test which revealed that the child was not related to any of them.

“I searched for my child in the entire Mulago hospital and I had faith that my baby would be located.  My hope was shuttered as I failed to discover my child or her body for three days. I was only called after the three days and given a fresh body of the child. I looked at the body but I was sure that this was not my child since the body was fresh. I decided to report the matter to police which advised me to undertake a DNA test. This test revealed that the components were negative. I approached CEHURD to file a Human rights case for the human rights violations my family suffered and we are still going through” Says Mubangizi Michael, father to the lost child.

“A number of women are facing human rights violations in health facilities all over the Country when they go to give birth. Most of these cases go unnoticed since the perpetrators of such violations are not made answerable for such injustices. These vulnerable women are not aware of their rights guaranteed under the Constitution and Regional and International Human Rights Instruments,” says Ms. Nakibuuka Noor the Program Manager Strategic Litigation.

The above reflects the suffering mothers and their families go through when their rights are violated in the health facilities. It is time for everyone to act to stop these injustices.

For more information, contact: Nakibuuka Noor Musisi, CEHURD, +256782496681

By Umaru Kashaka

The Uganda Parliamentary Women’s Association (UWOPA) has written to Speaker Rebecca Kadaga to help fix an appointment with President Yoweri Museveni over the alarming maternal mortality rate in Uganda and the appalling state of private health services.

MPs and the civil society organizations observed that their efforts in lobbying and advocating for women rights in Uganda are producing diminishing returns due to lack of political will from the Government.

“We want the government to sit up and take notes because we are tired of lamenting about maternal deaths in this country.

We have requested the Speaker to fix an appointment for us to meet the President over the stagnation and non-progress in maternal issues despite our continued efforts in complaining about it. We want the President to provide the stewardship that is now lacking,” Mityana Woman MP, Sylvia Namabidde told a news conference at Parliament.

UWOPA chairperson, Betty Amongi, stressed that the meeting with the President would also solve the continued non-supervision of private health facilities by the government which has resulted into unprofessionalism of health workers in handling expectant mothers.

“We want to share with the President on the issue of inadequate human resource in both private and public facilities in terms of qualified and experienced doctors and mid-wives, and yet we allocated a large sum of money to recruit more health workers,” Amongi added.

They appealed to private health facilities to provide the necessary cooperation to an ad-hoc committee that was set up by Parliament on Wednesday to probe them, following the sudden death of the 36-year-old coordinator of the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Children, Remmie Wamala, at IHK where she had gone to deliver last Friday.

According to Namutumba Woman MP, Florence Mutyabule, the post-mortem report indicated that Wamala died of excessive bleeding and a ruptured uterus. She said her child (a son) survived, but was on oxygen.

FIDA-Uganda board member, Berna Bakkidde said in spite of Article 33(3) of the constitution which clearly requires the government to protect women and their rights taking into account their unique status and natural maternal functions in society, the rate of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births has increased from 435 from 2005 to 438 in 2011, according to the Uganda Demographic Health Survey 2011/2012.

“We are concerned about the rising number of maternal deaths in Uganda as a result of the high level of negligence by health workers in private and public health facilities which pose a danger to the lives of women in Uganda,” Bakkidde said.

She added: “Remmie’s death is representative of so many women who have died in child birth, as a result of preventable medical complications.”

Bakkidde called upon the ministry of health to borrow a leaf from Parliament and also institute an investigation into the high rate of maternal deaths in private health facilities, saying they have failed to provide timely and appropriate medical care which has escalated the number of maternal deaths.

“I still believe that the passing on of Remmie and many other women who have died under these circumstances could have been avoided in private facilities. Our colleague by going to the International Hospital Kampala (IHK) knew what she was doing but was unfortunately let down by the system,” she noted sadly.

The Uganda Women’s Network communication officer, Sandra Kamuhimbo, urged government to increase resource allocation to the health sector and honor its commitment to invest 15% of its national budget on health as per the Abuja Declaration.

“We feel no woman should die while bringing a life into the world. However, in Uganda today pregnant women look at death in the face every time they go into labour. The health ministry should take up their role in regularizing and supervising these private health facilities to ensure efficient service delivery of our mothers and sisters,” she implored.

Source: http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/644729-soaring-maternal-deaths-mp-seek-museveni-s-attention.html

Access to essential medicines is one of the key requirements for achieving equitable health systems and better health for the population. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) noted that over the past 25 years developing countries have made significant strides to ensure greater access to medicines. The number of people with regular access to essential medicines increased from two to four billion between 1997 and 2002. However, nearly two billion of the world’s population, many of whom live in least-developed countries (LDC), lack regular access to essential medicines (UNCTAD, 2011). Find Full DOCUMENT 

CEHURD (Center for Health, Human Rights and Development) invites journalists to apply for a media training and mentoring programme to report on sexual, reproductive health and human rights issues in Uganda. The program is aimed at mentoring and building capacity for Ugandan journalists to report on issues concerning Sexual, reproductive health and human rights.

According to the Preliminary Uganda Demographic Health Survey 2011, the maternal mortality ratio in Uganda stands at 438 for every 100,000 live births. Indeed, the Millennium development Goals Report issued by the Ministry of finance indicated that 16 women die of preventable maternal health causes in Uganda on a daily basis and 4-5 of these are due to unsafe abortion. This makes up for up-to 6,000 mothers every year! This is a situation unacceptable because these deaths are preventable and are an abuse of human rights.

Against this background, the Center for Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD) within the Coalition to stop maternal mortality due to unsafe abortion (CSMMUA) will embark on training holding the media from Thursday 1st August to Saturday 3rd August 2013. Find full application