Sarah Bireete

Sarah Bireete is a Ugandan lawyer, human rights defender, and political activist. She is the founding partner and executive director of the Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG), a non-governmental organization and government watchdog based in Uganda. Bireete also serves as a chairperson of the East and Horn of Africa Elections Observers Network (E-HORN), a coalition of election observer groups working to protect electoral integrity in East Africa. Quotes I am a lawyer, a Human rights activist, and the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG), a constitutional watchdog in Uganda. I also have my own social media channel, Good Morning Uganda, followed by over 20000 followers. Talking about herself and work The first thing is that international companies should observe the laws of the country in which they operate and the international law and best practice. But the practice is that most international companies that come from democratic countries, where they respect people’s rights, when they come to Uganda they tend to be blind to people’s rights, especially labour rights, people’s protection, especially in risky sectors like the flower farms. We have had experiences in the country where women worked with no protection against the pesticides, and they experienced health hazards, which made them unable to fend for families. Civil society believes that most of them are not helpful as they are not upholding practices that are respected in their own countries and are not following best practices established by international processes, such as the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. We are struggling with this, because we expect multinational companies to come in with an upper hand, and improve practice in oil governance in the country. What we expect is a partnership with developed countries, in line with international protocols governing diplomacy, and with companies based in this countries – this would help us improve the welfare of the people in the least developed countries. We don’t expect big companies to come in and negatively affect people and shrink space for civil society. Multinational companies come into the country and give work to mainly low wage workers – they have limited knowledge, they are vulnerable, they need to make a living for their families – and then they get exploited by people that we would expect would have higher protection standards. This erodes people’s trust because it appears as though they are just trying to exploit the situation, instead of trying to improve the welfare of society they’re coming into. But in the context of the business and human rights approach, we as civil society need to work a lot with these companies to show them that they shouldn’t lower standards – they should maintain the same standards as in their countries of origin. Multinational companies should also work with civil society actors to help us push back against the government if it is shrinking civic space and to push the government to help improve the welfare of the people, as they make profit. We expect multinationals to say to government ‘these are not the standards we expect to work in. They cannot make profit when country is not governable, so they should help improve the situation and tell government that they cannot violate human rights because it will make situation worse for everyone. Multinational companies come into the country and give work to mainly low wage workers – they have limited knowledge, they are vulnerable, they need to make a living for their families – and then they get exploited by people that we would expect would have higher protection standards. This erodes people’s trust because it appears as though they are just trying to exploit the situation, instead of trying to improve the welfare of society they’re coming into. But in the context of the business and human rights approach, we as civil society need to work a lot with these companies to show them that they shouldn’t lower standards – they should maintain the same standards as in their countries of origin. In an interview Arrested and thrust into the spotlight over what authorities called the unlawful possession of voters' data—an allegation she strongly denies—Ugandan human rights activist Sarah Bireete delivers a gripping account of her ordeal: from the heavy‑handed security meddling, to the moment she was held past the lawful 48‑hour limit and disappeared into a month‑long confinement behind bars. Bireete is the director of the Center for Constitutional Governance, a human rights organization in Kampala, and is a frequent commentator and government critic in local media and on the internet. She has also raised concerns about the legitimacy of the forthcoming elections in numerous online posts, including concerns about discrepancies in the voters’ registry. It is not the first time Ugandan authorities have arbitrarily arrested high profile government critics to silence them and others in the lead up to elections. For example, on December 22, 2020, in the lead up to the 2021 elections, police arbitrarily arrested human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo, and three other lawyers at a restaurant in Kampala. The authorities charged Opiyo with money laundering, but later withdrew the charges. Sarah Bireete’s arrest is a demonstration of the Uganda government’s continuing intolerance of dissent. The Ugandan authorities should release Bireete, drop all charges against her, and respect the rights to freedom of expression and political participation. External links Category: Living people