The Refugee Law Project (RLP) is a community outreach project of the School of Law, Makerere University established to ensure that all people enjoy their human rights irrespective of their legal status. We are pleased to present RLPs 2023 achievements. RLP continues to make positive strides even at a time when funding has greatly reduced due other global emergencies that have impacted availability of resources for responding to humanitarian and development needs of Uganda. For two and a half decades, RLP has focused on the human rights of forced migrants, their hosts and vulnerable communities. this will remain a key focus for the year 2024. RLP continuously undertakes research to build evidence that supports its interventions. Few organizations can demonstrate the scope and reach that RLP has achieved, using local personnel and refugee staff. From experience and research RLP has developed guides and quality improvement tools. It has also shared its material freely with a large number of stakeholders. Utilising technological advances, RLP has also explored the use of online counselling services to further reach communities and influence the social media spaces.
At the Summit, Uganda’s Minister for Internal Affairs, Hon. Minister Henry Okello Oryem, pledged to provide training for armed forces on the Protocol. Since 2016, with fundingsupport from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office through the British High Commission in Uganda, Refugee Law Project has trained Uganda Battle Groups (UGABAG) peacekeepers on documentation and investigations of sexual violence in conflict using the protocol. So far, 1,088 (229 females, 859 males) UPDF soldiers have received training prior to deployment for peacekeeping operation in the East and Horn of Africa region.
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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
On 14 June 2019, Refugee Law Project published a video titled “Aimé Moninga: My Journey To Overcoming Effect Of Sexualised Torture”. This video reflects the journey of Aimé Moninga (President of Men of Hope Refugee Association in Uganda) and touches on the day-to-day challenges that male survivors of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) as well as the struggle to break the silences that surround the same.
Since the first case of COVID-19 was detected in Uganda, lives have and continue to change dramatically. With several measures and televised Presidential directives, the #StayHome mantra continues to impact lives in various ways. Refugees and host communities have not been spared – if any, the pandemic has worsened the already biting challenges and vulnerabilities.
With some vulnerable communities in ‘hard-to-reach’ places at the receiving end of the directives and its associated enforcement and curfew, many of the things happening in and around refugee-hosting areas haven’t made it to the media. Many refugees and hosts are mired in inadequately documented challenges. While communities have not resigned themselves to the hurdles at hand and are adopting numerous creative coping mechanisms, the ways in which such resilience and positive coping mechanisms can be supported and replicated elsewhere by government, civil society, and international actors requires further exploration.
Ahead of the commemoration of the Day of the African Child (16 June 2019) under the theme ‘Humanitarian Action in Africa: Children’s Rights First’, and as a leading Centre for Justice and Forced Migrants, Refugee Law Project (RLP) in consultation with leaders of refugee-led community support groups, organised a roundtable discussion on the theme of the day to explore how humanitarian workers can strengthen and promote the protection of rights of refugee children. The 2019 Day of the African Child (DAC) coincided with Sunday – a weekend in Uganda. The urban refugee children and their caretakers braved a cold and drizzly Saturday morning to participate in a roundtable dialogue on children’s rights and protection in humanitarian settings.
- National Coordination Mechanism on Migration Training on Migration, Environment and Climate Change Nexus 10-14 June 2019
- Written account of Lt Gen Bazilio’s life, as narrated by Dr Obonyo Henry
- Report on Rapid Assessment of Sudanese Refugee Influx into northern Uganda
- Compendium of Conflicts in Uganda: Findings of the National Reconciliation and Transitional Justice Audit