Rights and Wrongs in the Run-Up to Uganda's 2016 Elections

Featuring:

Nicholas Opiyo
Executive Director, Chapter Four Uganda

Maria Burnett
Senior Researcher, Africa Division, Human Rights Watch

Moderated by:

Richard Downie
Deputy Director and Fellow, CSIS

Ugandans will go to the polls on February 18, 2016 for presidential and parliamentary elections. President Yoweri Museveni, in power for nearly 30 years, faces his former ally and former Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and long-time opposition leader, Dr. Kizza Besigye. There are serious questions about how Uganda can hold free and fair elections given the uneven playing field and the incumbent’s access to state coffers. Opposition leaders and their supporters have been arrested and harassed by state security forces, and Ugandan media, already constrained by stringent media laws and ad-hoc enforcement, have faced police brutality when covering opposition rallies. Ugandan citizens are increasingly frustrated by grand-scale corruption and the failures of government to deliver services, and a growing number are skeptical that elections can lead to political change. Please join us for a discussion on Uganda’s political and human rights climate with Maria Burnett of Human Rights Watch, and human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo, founder of Chapter Four Uganda, and winner of the 2015 Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism.

This event is made possible by general support to CSIS. No direct sponsorship contributed to this event.