The Applicability of the Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act Cap 130 in the Treatment of Prisoners in Uganda: A Case Study of Luzira Prison

The prohibition of torture and of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is among the most fundamental guarantees of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda 1995, and it is, by article 44, absolute and non-derogable. The Prevention and Prohibition of Torture Act Cap 130 gives that guarantee statutory force, defines torture, creates the offence, extends liability to any person including a public official, and provides remedies for victims. Prisoners, who are in the custody and under the control of the State, are among the persons most exposed to torture and ill-treatment, whether through acts inflicted on them by officials or through conditions of detention that are themselves inhuman. This article examines the applicability of the Act to the treatment of prisoners in Uganda, taking Luzira, the country's largest prison establishment, as its case study. It sets out the concept of torture and the rights of prisoners; it examines the international, constitutional and statutory framework, comprising the Convention against Torture, the Constitution, the Act Cap 130, the Prisons Act Cap 325 and the Regulations of 2017; and it analyses the Ugandan jurisprudence, including Attorney General v Salvatori Abuki, Kyamanywa v Uganda, Susan Kigula v Attorney General, Mukasa v Attorney General and Foundation for Human Rights Initiatives v Attorney General. It argues that Uganda possesses a strong legal framework for the protection of prisoners from torture, but that its applicability at Luzira is constrained by weak enforcement and, above all, by systemic conditions of detention, chief among them overcrowding, that the framework on its own cannot remedy, and it recommends the strengthening of enforcement, the reform of the conditions of detention, and the fortification of the institutions of inspection, complaint and remedy.