The “Promise” of Ratification: A Ugandan-EAC Perspective

Abstract

International law functions on the basis that nations or institutions that are signatories to international law instruments will abide by certain uniform standards of behaviour or principles. The Republic of Uganda is a member state to the African Union and the East African Community. These organizations have made the protection of human rights one of the pillars of their existence and further place an obligation on their member states to adhere to universally acceptable principles of good governance, democracy, the rule of law, observance of human rights and social justice. The Government of Uganda has also done good in ratifying various human rights instruments at both regional and continental occasions. Despite this, the human rights record of Uganda remains very low according to various Human rights Reports including those by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The crux of this paper is to investigate the effect of ratification on the adjudication of human rights related disputes within the Republic of Uganda. It does so by analyzing various judgments of the Constitutional Court of Uganda and of the East African Court of Justice. Its main findings are that the EAC Court of Justice has been proactive in promoting the international law obligations of Uganda in its decisions however the Constitutional Court of Uganda is yet to reveal its position on developing the international human rights jurisprudence of the country. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n20p2172