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Uganda

Volume 455: debated on Monday 15 January 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if she will request a special session at the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda to discuss human rights in Uganda; and if she will make a statement. (114332)

The agenda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, to be held in Kampala, Uganda in November 2007, is yet to be decided. The agenda is drawn up by the Commonwealth Secretariat, in consultation with all Commonwealth member states. The Government have no plans at present to request a special session on human rights in Uganda.

We regularly discuss human rights issues bilaterally with the Ugandan Government. My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Lord Triesman of Tottenham, met President Museveni most recently on 20 November 2006. The UK also takes an active role in Kampala in the Partners for Democracy and Governance group and its sub group, the Human Rights Working Group. Both groups regularly review human rights issues and raise concerns with the Ugandan Government and civil society.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment she has made of the report by HE Sir Ketumile Masire, chairperson of the Commonwealth Observer Group on Uganda in relation to the forthcoming meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government in that country; and if she will make a statement. (114533)

The Commonwealth Observers Group’s report relates to the Ugandan presidential and parliamentary elections of February 2006. For our assessment of that report I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South (Mr. Hancock) by my hon. Friend the then Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs (Ian Pearson) on 18 April 2006, Official Report, column 91W, and the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Portsmouth, South (Mr. Hancock) on 29 November 2006, Official Report, columns 744-45W.

We have not made an assessment of the report in relation to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, due to take place in November 2007.