The IHRC Africa Region HQ has offered to ask the Africa’s governments to ensure the rights to food, shelter, and other basic necessities for people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Director/Ambassador of the African Executive Council of the human rights body, H.E Dr. Tivlumun Innocent Ahure briefed the media with a direct condemnation of the exclusion of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the policies put in place by African countries for the fight on covid 19.
To heed this call the IHRC Coordinator/Special Envoy for Uganda, Daniel Neviliya has been devoted to humanitarian response to assist the people observing the COVID-19 lockdown and suffering lack of food which they need to eat to survive. Daniel Neviliya has challenged the government of Uganda to combine public health measures with efforts to prevent the pandemic from destroying the lives and livelihoods of society’s poorest and most vulnerable people. The IHRC Uganda has carried out several outreach programs in which children of poor people such as street traders, taxi drivers, tradesmen, artisans, and hairdressers etc., who have lower incomes and often do not have savings, health insurance, or pensions are regularly scheduled to receive food.
Daniel and his IHRC team in Uganda therefore distributes food to these vulnerable households. In the IHRC Uganda report to the IHRC Africa Region HQ on the outreach events, the failure by the Uganda Government to protect the rights of the people most likely to lack adequate food, shelter, and other essentials is fully stated. H.E Dr. Tivlumun Innocent Ahure after reviewing the document said it is made abundantly clear under international human rights law that Uganda’s government has an obligation to protect people’s right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food and nutrition, the highest attainable standard of health, and the right to social security. In times of economic crisis, countries must demonstrate that they have made every effort to mobilize all available resources, including international assistance, and allocate them in the way that maximizes respect for human rights, including by taking into account the precarious situation of disadvantaged and marginalized individuals or groups. Governments are obligated to ensure access to food, water, health care, and other basic needs for everyone at all times, and in particular those subject to lockdown and other severe restrictions on movement. Daniel Neviliya is delighted with the encomiums earned by the IHRC Uganda for the humanitarian response since the outreach programs for assistance during the covid 19 pandemic which he has led since April 2020 and the several years of experience in the implementation of help projects to the underserved communities in Uganda.
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