The role of the media in promoting human rights in Uganda (A case study of Uganda Human Rights Commission southeastern region-Jinja)

Abstract

This study carries forward an examination of the efforts of the media and other institutions, which fall in the same caliber in promoting and protecting human rights in Uganda. The study adopted a largely quantitative approach in which Uganda Human Rights commission was purposively drawn and a detailed study of the media for example; newspapers, radio, and televisions mention them and other relevant organizations. All the three administrators of UHRC Jinja were interviewed, and also clients who attended mediations at the regional office, were all involved in the focus group discussion. Thematic and content analysis was to manage the data, while a statistical package was used to generate simple fi·equencies, which provided supportive information. The study revealed that UHRC and the media had programs aiming at protecting and promoting Human Rights in Uganda. The study also showed that while the UHRC and the media are very committed to protecting and promoting human Rights, their eff01is are constrained by several challenges which include; co-ordination and collaboration among implementers, the ignorance of the local population about human rights and inadequate funding and facilitation. The study findings strongly suggest that the media and other government institutions, which protect human rights, together have a great challenge a head of them as they endeavor to reduce violations of human rights in Uganda. The study is presented fewer than 5 chapters. Chapter 1 gives the background to the study and other related issues like the statement of the problem, objectives, research questions, problem analysis significance of the study and the scope. Chapter 2 is devoted to a review of literate related to the problem under investigation. It includes an evaluation of previous studies related to the media and human rights. This way the chapter throws more light on the nature of the research problem articulated in chapter 1 as well as knowledge gaps.