On 20 December 2013, the Ugandan Parliament passed the ‘Anti-Homosexuality Bill’, which is now law. The law not only broadens the criminalisation of adult consensual same-sex relations, but lays down prison term for anybody defending LGBTI rights as well as health and sexual education providers. LGBTI rights defender Clare Byarugaba explained the context and potential consequences of the Bill. Watch

Uganda’s gay organisations have been forced to operate underground due to public hostility and state persecution of their members . The formation of the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CSCHRCL) has been vocal in campaigning for the rights of gay people and exposing the harmful operations of right wing American religious fundamentalists in the country

NGOs need urgent soul-searching. They have hogged public space that they have deprived ordinary citizens of the right to speak for themselves. The Ugandan NGOs have stifled the citizens’ voices.

The current US-Taliban talks now remove any pretexts Kagame and Museveni might have not to talk to the FDLR and to the LRA, respectively. Tanzanian President, Jakaya Kikwete’s proposal for talks involving all parties in the Great Lakes region to find a permanent political solution to the problems of the region must be urgently heeded

They provide a model for other youth in diaspora to emulate: keeping in touch with one’s culture and religion; how to settle in a foreign land; creativity in employment; long-term investment in education

Rather than continuing to operate on an exclusive basis, the LGBT movement in Uganda should strive to nurture a multivariate movement for social justice, creating a multi-normative society for their safety and the peaceful coexistence of future generations

A new tax on goods and services is being proposed in Uganda to fund HIV and AIDS prevention and protection programmes. But the idea has sparked a debate about government performance in managing funds

Vincent Nuwagaba challenges the Uganda Human Rights Commission on its abysmal failure to promote and protect human rights, let alone award compensation to victims.

The commission is mute in the face of egregious human rights violations perpetrated by the Museveni regime. The political leanings of its officials undermines their commitment to building a just society

If the brutal law being considered by parliament is passed, thousands of Ugandans could face execution -- just for being gay

The recent conference on the M23 rebellion in DR Congo achieved little. With increasing international disinterest in the crisis, Africa must unite to end this conflict.

It is not necessarily land scarcity, but rather improper land administration, abuse of power and systems that are key land conflict triggers in northern Uganda.

Many women in the Lango sub-region continue to live under systematic abuse and severe reproductive health complications as a result of long years of armed conflict.

President Museveni has been in touch with the Congolese rebel group, the M23, and told them to stop fighting, Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga has revealed. Dr Kiyonga told the Sunday Monitor newspaper, in an exclusive interview, that secret meetings have been going on between Ugandan authorities and the rebels fighting President Joseph Kabila’s government, following a request by the Secretary General of International Conference for Great Lakes Region, Mr Ntumba Luaba. The revelation by the minister comes at a time when Uganda is fighting to clear its name with the UN, who, in a leaked report, accused Uganda of supporting the rebel group.

The Civil Society on Monday launched a campaign against corruption which they said would go on until Government takes action on corrupt public officials. Representative s of various civil society organizations converged at Uganda Manufacturing Association Hall in Nakawa dressed in black T-shirts wielding placards with anti-corruption slogans. Leading the group, Irene Ovonji-Odida from Action Aid International Board of Trustees, said wearing black symbolized they had started mourning and mobilizing citizens to rise up against the evil of corruption.

Following widespread land wrangles in the oil-rich Albertine region, the Ministry of Lands has announced plans to resolve this through guidelines to aid in compensation of customary land owners. 'It is crucial at the moment since people’s rights are at stake and we have the responsibility of protecting the poor and their property. We therefore have to put in place guidelines to ensure that those big oil companies and investors have an arrangement to adhere to and operate within the laws,' Ministry spokesman, Dennis Obbo, told Oil in Uganda.

It has once again happened that intellectual freedom has been curtailed in Uganda following the raid by police of an anti-discrimination play by Talented Ugandan Kuchus (TUK), a group of young talented performers whose message is of non-discrimination.

The production titled ‘Lighting the Shadows’ was rudely interrupted by one gentleman who had several policemen to back him. The audience was dispersed and so was the cast. Everyone was ordered out of the theatre. The Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CSCHRCL) was one of the major sponsors of this advocacy event to which the public as well as the diplomatic corps were invited.

Jeff Ogwaro, CSCHRCL Co-coordinator, Kampala Uganda

A severe outbreak of Trachoma has been reported in Karamoja with at least 50,000 people in dire need of urgent eye surgery to prevent blindness. The disclosure was made by the State Minister of Primary Health Care Sarah Opendi in Moroto town. The Minister attributed the outbreak on the lack of toilet facilities.

Uganda has suspended the issuance of new mining licences and put on notice those with non-performing ones following revelations that a number were handed out irregularly. Officials from the Ministry of Energy said most of the illegal licences had ended up in the hands of speculators who lacked the financial or technical ability to deliver. The department of geological survey and mines in the Ministry of Energy - Uganda’s licensing authority - has asked the speculators to justify why their licences should not be revoked.

The United States expects Uganda to keep its peacekeeping forces in Somalia, despite a threat to withdraw in protest at a UN report accusing Kampala of aiding rebels in eastern Congo, a senior State Department official said. The government in Kampala said it would pull out of peacekeeping missions in Africa unless the United Nations amends a report accusing it of supporting rebels in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.