VIII. Role of Uganda's Foreign Partners in Supporting Accountability
The international community should play a strong role in holding the Ugandan government to commitments it has made to good governance, multiparty democracy, and respect for human rights. All governments should hold Uganda to its international legal obligations, including under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, to ensure the right of its people to participate freely in choosing their government.[96]
Elections in Uganda are heavily supported by the international donor community and the support will significantly increase for the 2011 elections. For the 2006 elections, Uganda received 5.3 million Euros (then, US$6.3 million) from the election basket fund, managed by the Danish development agency, DANIDA.[97] For 2011, the total package from the Deepening Democracy Program, managed by DANIDA's good governance program, totals at least US$19 million.[98] This includes support to various stakeholders in the elections, including the Electoral Commission, political parties, election observers, and civil society groups.
The United States, via USAID, currently has a budget of approximately US$4.5 million in democracy and governance programming per year in Uganda. These programs work with political parties, civil society, parliament, as well as local government, providing technical assistance and training. A small portion of this budget is dedicated specifically to activities related to the 2011 election process.[99]
A number of foreign diplomats in Uganda told Human Rights Watch that they expected the 2011 elections to suffer from bribery, intimidation and some vote rigging, but seemed unwilling to press their own governments to use assistance to address these problems.[100] Electoral turmoil, as the 2007 election violence in Kenya, Uganda's neighbor, demonstrated, as well as the Ugandan government's violent response to the September 2009 riots, shows the urgent need to address electoral problems, particularly the persistence of impunity.[101]
[96] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force March 23, 1976, acceded to by Uganda on June 21, 2005. The African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, adopted June 27, 1981, OAU Doc. CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 (1982), entered into force October 21, 1986, ratified by Uganda in 1986.
[97] Human Rights Watch interview with Simon Osborn, Election Technical Adviser, Kampala, January 25, 2006.
[98] Human Rights Watch interview with Simon Osborn, Component Manager, Deepening Democracy Programme, DANIDA, October 26, 2009.
[99] Response to public request for information from USAID, October 29, 2009.
[100] Human Rights Watch interviews with diplomats, September 22 and October 13, 14 and 22, 2009.
[101] See Human Rights Watch, Ballots to Bullets: Organized Political Violence and Kenya's Crisis of Governance, vol. 20, no. 1(A), March 2008, http://www.hrw.org/node/62314, p. 68.