Prisons bosses undergo refresher training on human rights

Uganda Prisons Service (UPS) senior officers are undergoing refresher training on human rights designed for critical engagements.

The training is aimed at imparting general knowledge, strengthening the protection of human rights in the country, to ensure that every person in Uganda particularly persons in detention effectively enjoy their rights. “The commission is alive to the nature and demands of your work, dealing with people that have been temporarily withdrawn from society, and for bad reasons,” said Ms Mariam Wangadya, the Chairperson of Uganda Human Rights Commission (URHC), while addressing the top prison bosses at Imperial Golf View Hotel in Entebbe Thursday.

”We appreciate your challenges dealing with sometimes innocent prisoners including unfortunate babies who aren’t suspects or convicts but are in detention with their mothers as well as the prison staff themselves who are rights holders in their own way. We wish to see how these challenges can be navigated with no or minimum unintended harm,” she added.

Some of the topics to be tackled in the training include; sharing experiences on the UPS’s efforts in complying with their obligations on the observance of human rights, the state of human rights observance in UPS, and the challenges and recommendations among others.

The Assistant Commissioner General of Prisons in charge of Correctional Services, Mr Milton Tiyo, hopes that the senior officers shall be reminded of their duties and obligation in regard to observation, promotion, protection and enforcement of the human rights of both inmates and staff.

“This will be a reminder and we are sure that this training shall provide us with new information, new statistics among others but it’s good timing for the senior officers’ history of human rights,” he said.

Mr Tiyo noted that currently, Uganda Prisons Service has 14,468 staff and 75,991 inmates including 286 children.

By Eve Muganga
https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/prisons-bosses-undergo-refresher-training-on-human-rights-4281104