The Uganda Police Force in the protection and promotion of the right to freedom from torture in Kampala Metropolitan: A case study of selected Police Divisions.

Abstract

The study was about the Uganda Police Force in the protection and promotion of the right to freedom from torture. The general objective of the study was to establish the performance and challenges in the protection and promotion of the right to freedom from torture by the Uganda Police Force. The specific objectives were to assess the extent to which police has played its role in the protection and promotion of the right to freedom from torture in Kampala Metropolitan, to examine the challenges police encountered in the protection and promotion of the right to freedom from torture in Kampala Metropolitan and to find ways the police force could improve its role in the protection and promotion of the right to freedom from torture in Kampala Metropolitan. The research design adopted in this study was a case study research design. The sample size consisted of 103 respondents. Purposive sampling was used to select senior police officers, victims of torture and members of CSO while simple random sampling was used to select low ranked police officers. The analysis mainly consisted of descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) including content analysis. This study found out that the police force tried to observe the right to freedom from torture in particular and human rights in general while on duty, but encountered challenges which were working conditions related challenges (funding and logistics related challenges), citizen/public related challenges, political interference related challenges, professional related challenges, legal related challenges and army/military interference related challenges. These challenges played a role in breeding misconduct and lowering morale among the police officers, hence abuse of human rights.