The joint stakeholder report by APC, CIPESA and WOUGNET examines key human rights issues in Uganda’s digital context, including freedom of expression and opinion, access to information and content censorship, digital connectivity and inclusion, data protection and privacy, and technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), particularly against women human rights defenders and structurally excluded groups. During Uganda’s third-cycle review in January 2022, the country received 273 recommendations, supporting 139 and noting 134.
Since then, Uganda has expanded broadband connectivity, strengthened aspects of data protection enforcement, and increased digital public service delivery. However, these gains have been undermined by recurring restrictions on online freedoms, arrests and prosecutions for online expression, election-related internet shutdowns, surveillance concerns, persistent digital exclusion and weak remedies for digital rights violations.