Global physician leaders express revulsion about torture reports from Uganda


Reports that detainees in Uganda are being tortured and denied access to specialised medical care have been denounced by the World Medical Association.

WMA President Dr. Yoshitake Yokokura said: ‘We have received appalling reports about a number of detainees in Uganda being tortured while under arrest and then denied access to medical attention, even when the Uganda Medical Association has offered to help them.

‘Such activities are especially disappointing, since Uganda is one of only 10 African countries with anti-torture legislation and is a signatory to the United Nations Torture Convention’

Dr. Yokokura has written to Uganda’s Prime Minister to express the WMA’s revulsion about what he described as ‘the pervasive practice of torture in Ugandan detention places’. The letter sets out details of the violence and rape that the Uganda Human Rights Commission discovered when it visited detention centres.

The letter reinforces the call from the Uganda Medical Association to respect the rights of patients and to protect doctors documenting and denouncing torture in Uganda. It states: ‘Torture and other cruel or degrading treatments are one of the gravest violations of international human rights law. It destroys the dignity, the essence of the human being. As physicians, we are revolted by the devastating consequences of this practice for victims, their families and society as a whole, with severe physical and mental injuries.

‘Torture is unconditionally prohibited by the United Nation Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment that Uganda ratified in 1987, hereby establishing its consent to be bound by the provisions of the Convention. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture’.

The letter calls on Uganda’s Prime Minister to take immediate and effectives measures ‘to prevent and stop such intolerable shaming practices’ and to be an inspiring model for other countries.

It concludes: ‘We call on you to act as a matter of priority to ensure effective access to comprehensive health care to those in need and to allow and ensure that physicians can follow their ethical duties to provide medical care in an undisturbed and professional manner without intimidation and repression’.