Project
Reclaim and Protect Civic Space
-
Amount Funded
109,413 EUROProject Duration
01 Jun 2020 - 31 May 2021 -
-
Lead organisation
Partners
The Copyright Institute of Uganda (CIU) Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda)
-
This Project is implemented by the Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG), the Copyright Institute of Uganda (CIU) and the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda) with each organisation having its own critical and unique role. The Center for Constitutional Governance-CCG is a constitutional watchdog established to promote constitutional governance by building a centre that empowers citizens to fully enjoy their constitutional rights. CCG key programmes include; Constitutionalism and Constitutional Literacy through Hope Initiative a university student’s programme, Social Justice Campaigns, Public Interest Litigation, Research and Documentation including citizen’s civic engagements. The Copyright Institute of Uganda (CIU) is duly incorporated in Uganda as a company limited by guarantee, focusing on the promotion of copyright as the first step to prepare Uganda for a knowledge-based economy. CIU aims to boost the creative arts through litigation, sensitisation, advocacy and research. It has engaged different artists to ensure there is a platform that brings their interest together and offers legal advisory services to the various creative arts associations. CIU has a teaching syllabus that is tailored to the context that applies to Uganda and is also simplified, given the different levels of the artist in the country. The Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda) is a network of human rights journalists in Uganda working towards enhancing the promotion, protection and respect of human rights through defending and strengthening the capacities of journalists. It monitors and documents journalists’ rights, violations and abuses in Uganda and contributes towards realising media freedoms and good governance in the country. The organisation is currently a one-stop centre for journalists in Uganda where they seek support in terms of defending the media freedom space and other union issues due to absence of a strong National Journalist Institutions and Associations.
-
Organisation
This Project is implemented by the Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG), the Copyright Institute of Uganda (CIU) and the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda) with each organisation having its own critical and unique role. The Center for Constitutional Governance-CCG is a constitutional watchdog established to promote constitutional governance by building a centre that empowers citizens to fully enjoy their constitutional rights. CCG key programmes include; Constitutionalism and Constitutional Literacy through Hope Initiative a university student’s programme, Social Justice Campaigns, Public Interest Litigation, Research and Documentation including citizen’s civic engagements. The Copyright Institute of Uganda (CIU) is duly incorporated in Uganda as a company limited by guarantee, focusing on the promotion of copyright as the first step to prepare Uganda for a knowledge-based economy. CIU aims to boost the creative arts through litigation, sensitisation, advocacy and research. It has engaged different artists to ensure there is a platform that brings their interest together and offers legal advisory services to the various creative arts associations. CIU has a teaching syllabus that is tailored to the context that applies to Uganda and is also simplified, given the different levels of the artist in the country. The Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-Uganda) is a network of human rights journalists in Uganda working towards enhancing the promotion, protection and respect of human rights through defending and strengthening the capacities of journalists. It monitors and documents journalists’ rights, violations and abuses in Uganda and contributes towards realising media freedoms and good governance in the country. The organisation is currently a one-stop centre for journalists in Uganda where they seek support in terms of defending the media freedom space and other union issues due to absence of a strong National Journalist Institutions and Associations.
-
Project
-
-
-
Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG) is a regional organisation based in Uganda and reaches out to the Eastern Countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan with a cardinal goal of strengthening constitutional governance by bridging the gaps in governance and challenges in policy and regulatory frameworks. The institution established the Reclaim and Protect Civic Space project to empower human rights defenders/civic actors; artists, activists, bloggers, and investigative journalists to reclaim and protect the civic space in Uganda. The civic actors worked in synergy with journalists and activists in advocacy for expanding the space for civic actors and enabling greater political participation. In recent years this space has been shrinking in Uganda with civil liberties being curtailed and freedoms being denied with impunity. CCG organised and mobilised to work with artists according to the designs for effective pushback. As said by Richard Kwesa, Uganda’s songwriter and singer, “A man who cannot equitably earn his labor has no right to freedom”, the best safeguard for human rights protection is an enlightened and empowered citizenry.
The actors worked towards four main outputs. First, was to establish an effective coordination mechanism for citizens’ advocacy campaigns around the protection of civic space and agenda setting for civic engagements. Second, was to build a digitised online tool (Civic Space Incident App) for rapid response, timely reporting with geo-reference responsive to shrinking civic space incidences. Third, was to provide litigation and legal representation services and urgent legal actions for music artists, journalists and human rights defenders. Lastly, the project was to lobby for the establishment of a clear separation of roles between the Uganda Communications Commission and Media Council for the increased media freedoms and generating a database of all journalists in Uganda.
-
News
