Equal Opportunities Commission of Uganda calls for constitutional amendment

Image: Minority Rights Group

Minority Rights Group recently expressed support for the Equal Opportunities Commission, a government monitoring body in Uganda, in calling for broader recognition of minorities in the Constitution. Currently, the Third Schedule includes 65 indigenous communities while excluding many others, which denies them legal recognition and therefore, citizenship rights. The lack of legal recognition has historically contributed to systemic injustices against ethnic minorities and indigenous groups. Statelessness places these communities in danger of forced assimilation and cultural erosion, and leaves them without access to several social, economic, and political rights, such as acquiring identity documents.

According to advocates, repealing the Third Schedule could be a constructive first step towards inclusion and acceptance, as it fails to address the “fluidity of ethnicity in the African context, and does not consider the impact of colonial boundaries on ethnic compositions in bordering states”. Minority Rights Group suggests further steps for the improvement of the situation of minorities in Uganda, such as fulfilling its 2010 pledge to ratify the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

The full statement can be found on MRG’s website.

Author: Laura Vizi