FINAL (SUMMER) INTERNSHIP REPORT

BY EMMANUEL EKIBA BAGENDA

On secondment by the International Human Rights Program (at the University of Toronto Faculty of
Law), I served as an intern with the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) during the summer of
2006. My internship lasted from May to August and, during this time, I worked under the immediate
supervision of Mrs Christine Birabwa Nsubuga (who heads the Legal and Tribunals Section of the UHRC)
and Mr Remmy Beauregard (who is the UHRC’s Institutional Development Advisor).

Substantive Engagements

The main project on which I worked during the internship was a comparative analysis between the
UHRC’s legal framework and that of other national (and provincial) human rights commissions in a range
of countries, including Malawi, South Africa, Canada, and Ghana. The primary aim of all this was to
highlight ways in which the UHRC’s legal framework could be buttressed in a manner that facilitated the
promotion of human rights in Uganda. The working hypothesis, in other words, was that the UHRC could
overcome some of the institutional and substantive challenges it faced by drawing upon the normative
frameworks of its correspondent institutions in other jurisdictions.

Background work on this particular project had been done by the University of Toronto Working Group
on Uganda, and had yielded an initial framework of responses to be refined by concrete experiences
acquired during the internship.

In refining the initial report by the Working Group, I had immense guidance and assistance given by Mrs
Nsubuga, Mr Beauregard. I also drew extensively upon the human and material resources available at
the UHRC library. Finally, I benefitted tremendously from a Workshop organized by the UHRC’s Legal
and Tribunals Section, during which there were numerous helpful exchanges on the challenges facing
the Commission and ways in which these could be overcome.

Lessons Drawn

To be sure, many of the Working Group’s initial perceptions concerning the challenges faced by the
UHRC turned out to be spot on. Among these was the view that the process by which UHRC
commissioners were appointed severely compromised its independence from the executive, as well as
concerns regarding the loss of institutional experience (as a result of he concurrent expiration of
incumbent commissioners’ tenure).

At the same time, however, the internship was a crucial opportunity to refine many of the Working
Group’s initial perceptions by relating them to concrete reality at the UHRC. On a positive note, for
instance, it became clear that some of the challenges apparent from the legal framework were, in fact,
non-existent in practice. An example of this was the Working Group’s impression that UHRC
commissioners had to seek permission from authorities before visiting non-military detention facilities.
On a less sanguine note, however, it emerged that many of the challenges noted by the Working Group
had earlier been identified by the UHRC itself and that their non-resolution owed less to lack of
awareness and more to opposition from the executive.

Despite the complexities, nevertheless, the final report was able to weave these diverse considerations
into a comprehensive set of recommendations aimed at strengthening the UHRC’s role in promoting the
enjoyment of human rights in Uganda.

In summary, my stint as an intern at the UHRC turned out to be a crucial opportunity to engage with
issues at the forefront of the promotion of human rights at the national level. Thus, while the report
emerging from the internship is primarily intended for action on the part of the UHRC, it should also
serve as a helpful guide to action by present and future Human Rights Working Groups at the University
of Toronto.