• Uganda: Draft Public Order Law Would Violate Rights
    Press release
    May 11, 2012
    The Uganda parliament should significantly revise the draft Public Order Management bill, which would drastically restrict freedom of assembly and expression. Despite pressure from the executive to pass the bill in its current form, key recommendations from parliament’s Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee should be used to guide revisions before the bill is presented for a vote.
  • Uganda: Investigate April 2011 Killings During Protest
    Press release
    Apr 29, 2012
    The government of Uganda has failed to investigate adequately the use of lethal force by security forces that resulted in the deaths of at least nine people during protests over corruption and rising commodity prices in April 2011. A year after the nine were killed, no member of the security forces has been held accountable and only one has been arrested.
  • Call for Solidarity with the Populations of Central Africa
    Letter
    Apr 20, 2012
    16 civil society, human rights, and religious groups in northern Congo and Central African Republic call for solidarity with the populations of central Africa affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army. In their call, they describe the situation and outline steps that should be taken as part of a multidimensional approach to ending the LRA problem. This is not a statement from Human Rights Watch, but we believe it is particularly powerful, especially taking into account the LRA’s significant and continuing abuses over the past few years extending into northern Congo, eastern Central African Republic, and South Sudan.
  • Uganda: “Walk to Work” Group Declared Illegal
    Press release
    Apr 4, 2012
    The Ugandan government’s declaration on April 4, 2012, that an activist group that has led protests against the government is an “unlawful society” is deeply troublingoday. The action against Activists for Change (A4C) was taken ahead of a planned demonstration on April 5.
  • The Other Half of the Kony Equation
    Commentary
    Apr 4, 2012

    The African Union last month announced a plan to improve coordination to end atrocities by Joseph Kony’s Ugandan rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Efforts to arrest Kony and other LRA leaders wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to end LRA abuses are urgently needed. But that is only half of the picture; addressing the legacy of the LRA and Ugandan army abuses is the other. This history of abuse also has implications for US and other foreign support to Ugandan-led arrest operations for Kony. 

  • Q&A on Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army
    Q & A
    Mar 21, 2012
    Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel group that originated in 1987 in northern Uganda among ethnic Acholi communities.
  • Statement at the Human Rights Council on the adoption of the Universal Periodic Review report of Uganda
    Oral statement
    Mar 16, 2012

    The government should urgently take concrete action to address concerns over ongoing impunity and poor legislative proposals. Police and prosecutors should actively investigate the killings of at least 50 people during demonstrations in September 2009 and April 2011.

  • From Campaigning to Action on Joseph Kony and the LRA
    Commentary
    Mar 14, 2012

    In the past week, a 30-minute video about Joseph Kony and his rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), has received more than 90 million internet hits. Viewers of the video now know, if they didn’t before, that he is a wanted man with much blood on his hands. For years Human Rights Watch has investigated the LRA’s horrors, from Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the Central African Republic (CAR) and South Sudan. We have visited remote massacre sites and listened to hundreds of victims and survivors who want their stories heard.

  • Capturing Kony
    Media spotlight
    Mar 9, 2012
    Human Rights Watch has extensively documented the LRA’s atrocities, uncovering unreported massacres in remote regions and interviewing many victims. We’ve taken our findings to government leaders, pushing for action, and even created a short video postcard bringing the voices and appeals of victims directly to the Obama administration.
  • How to Catch Joseph Kony
    Commentary
    Mar 9, 2012
    We’ve spent years investigating the horrors perpetrated by the LRA in central Africa — Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic (CAR), and South Sudan. We gathered evidence at massacre sites — wooden clubs covered in dried blood, rubber strips from bicycle tires used to tie up the victims, and freshly dug graves – and spoke to hundreds of boys and girls forced to fight for his army or held captive as sex slaves. And we’re elated that #stopKony is a trending topic on Twitter – if anyone deserves global notoriety it’s Kony.