A/HRC/28/42
Uganda: multi-stakeholder dialogue on rights-based approaches to maternal and child
mortality
54.
High mortality rates among women and young children remain a major challenge in
Uganda. The country also has one of the highest adolescent pregnancy rates in the world.
55.
Since 2013, the OHCHR office in Uganda, together with the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Ministry of Health, has been supporting a multistakeholder dialogue aimed at promoting a human rights-based, participatory and inclusive
approach in the national effort to reduce maternal and child morbidity and mortality. The
initiative began with a regional workshop, held in Malawi in November 2013, which
convened representatives of governments, national human rights institutions, civil society
and United Nations entities from Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and the United Republic of
Tanzania to explore ways to apply rights-based approaches to maternal and child mortality
in their respective national contexts.
56.
In follow-up to the workshop, OHCHR commissioned an assessment of the health
and human rights situations of women and children in Uganda, and presented it in
November 2014 to a national-level multi-stakeholder group organized in Kampala jointly
with UNFPA, the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health. In addition to
representatives of the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, the Ministry of
Finance and the Office of the First Lady, and district-level officials, the group also included
parliamentarians, representatives of private health-care providers, civil society, the Uganda
Human Rights Commission and the United Nations. The group considered the main
findings of the OHCHR assessment and identified action points to support maternal and
child health, including: advocacy for law reform and implementation of legislation (Penal
Law, Marriage and Divorce Act and Death Registration Act); advocacy for greater
participation in the State budget process; generation of more and better quality
disaggregated data; and inclusion of human rights training in the curricula for health
workers. The Government of Uganda committed itself to integrating human rights into
upcoming planning activities, including the preparation of the National Development Plan.
57.
The process has been helpful in bringing a wide range of stakeholders together and
has served to raise awareness among civil society and government authorities concerning
more fully embracing an inclusive and participatory approach to planning and decisionmaking. It is expected that the methodologies tested and developed under the project may
become part of the standard national planning process and be replicated in other sectors.
United Republic of Tanzania: combating the exclusion of and violence against people
with albinism
58.
In the United Republic of Tanzania, people with albinism have long faced
discrimination, exclusion and outright rejection by their families and society at large. Many
also suffer from physical violence, as they are hunted down, mutilated and their amputated
body parts used in witchcraft rituals. That extreme social exclusion has a devastating
impact on children with albinism, who often find themselves unable to attend school
because of discrimination, bullying and violence.
59.
The authorities have taken measures to combat those crimes, and special centres
have been set up under the auspices of civil society to provide safe havens for children with
albinism. While welcoming those steps, OHCHR has continued to voice concern about the
risk of isolation and institutionalization of those children, and emphasized the urgent need
to reinforce the justice system in response to those crimes. People with albinism are often
unable to access justice for the crimes committed against them and unwilling to testify for
fear of reprisal and further victimization.
14
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