LOP Mpuuga hosts EU human rights chief

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Leader of the Opposition in Parliament (LOP), Mathias Mpuuga has held talks with the European Union (EU) Special Representative on Human Rights, Eamon Gilmore over the human rights situation in Uganda.

Gilmore flew in from Brussels for a three-day working visit during which he will interact with both government and non-government players.

He was accompanied by the EU ambassador to Uganda, Attilio Pacifici and the deputy EU ambassador, Anna Merrifield.

Others were, Malin Greenhill, the political advisor to the EU Special Representative on Human Rights and Cathal Gilbert, the focal point person for Human Rights Defenders at the EU mission in Uganda.

Gilmore said that it is important for the EU to listen to various stakeholders in regard to the human rights situation in Uganda, particularly the targeted arbitrary arrests, torture and disappearance of opposition supporters, the suffocation of the civic space and the media.

He extended his sympathies to the Parliament of Uganda over the death of the Rt Hon. Jacob Oulanyah who until his death last month, was the Speaker of Parliament.

The meeting comes two weeks after the LOP hosted the United States Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Lisa Peterson over the same subject.

In February, Mpuuga led Opposition MPs in a protest walk-out of Parliament against the worsening human rights violations in the country. He later announced a countrywide exercise to document cases of human rights abuses by security agencies and other state actors.