AS UGANDA AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY OBSERVE THE HUMAN RIGHTS DAY …

As Uganda and the international community observe the Human Rights day – 2015 whose theme is, “Our Rights, Our Freedoms Always,” it is important for His Excellence Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to observe these rights more so as the country prepares or the 2016 Presidential elections.  It is public knowledge that he loves so much to retain the Office of President of Uganda; however, the reading on the wall is that people yearn or change.  He may ferry people to his rallies to give the impression that he is the darling of Ugandans, but it is of utmost importance that he gets to terms with the reality that people get fed up of a personality.   One may have the army at his disposal and all the resources, but there is need to respect the wish of the people.

The Human Rights Day is marked annually on 10 December to commemorate the day in 1948 when the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A milestone document in the history of human rights, it sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.

The theme for Human Rights Day 2015 is "Our Rights. Our Freedoms. Always" – to mark the launch of a one-year campaign commemorating two international treaties adopted 50 years ago: Two Human Rights Covenants are the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, both adopted in 1966.

In 2015, the focus is on "freedoms" – recalling the four freedoms that underpin the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and two major human rights covenants, and first articulated in 1941 by President Franklin D Roosevelt in his "four freedoms speech" to the US Congress. The four freedoms are: freedom from fear, freedom of speech, freedom of worship and freedom from want.