People from local communities of Mityana and Arua and civil society organisations, supported by International AIDS Alliance Uganda, recently took to the streets to demand the enforcement of the right to health. Specific reference was made to maternal health, as protesters commemorated the lives of Sylvia Nalubowa from Mityana and Jennifer Anguko from Arua, who died in childbirth in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
Despite the commitment made by member countries in 2003 to dedicate at least 15 percent of annual national budgets to the health sector, Uganda’s health sector budget share currently stands at nine percent. Within this, maternal and child health is the least funded area.
According to Jackie Tumusiime, legal officer at the Uganda National Health Consumers Association, the demonstration lay the groundwork for a court petition being made by the those who have suffered the loss of Mrs Nalubowa and Mrs Anguko. Legal experts are due to petition the Attorney General, the Ministry of Health, national medical stores and other government representatives to provide essential health services including a ‘mama kit’ and adequate staffing to prevent maternal death.
The right to health is currently described as an objective by the Uganda constitution but campaigners hope the demonstration will lead to the right to health being enforced by pushing the government to address issues of maternal health and the wider health of the population.
Tumusiime said that an enforcement of the right to health should include provision for redress on issues concerning negligence in health services, accountability, and the provision of sufficient health facilities. “If this is successful it will give redress to several maternal deaths. In such a case where women have died their families will be compensated,” she argues.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) notes that the right to health is a fundamental human right and key to a living a dignified life. The right to health impacts on other fundamental rights like the right to life and is also enshrined in Article 16 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which states that ‘every individual shall have the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health and that states party to the Charter shall take the necessary measures to protect the health of their people and to ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick’.
Uganda is party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, but its low budget towards health, high maternal death rate and poor health service implementation has led it to breach the international commitments it has made towards promoting the health sector. This also means it is unlikely to achieve Millennium Development Goal Five, which tasks governments with attaining maternal health by 2015.
The peaceful demonstrations creates a hopeful scenario for success based on the South African experience, where in 2003 a civil society activist organization, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), confronted the South African government for failing to ensure the provision of mother-to-child-transmission prevention for pregnant women. TAC won the case on the basis that the South African constitution guaranteed the right to health care.
Gerald Kato, Policy and Advocacy Advisor at International Alliance Uganda, said: “This is meant to call upon the government to fulfill its constitutional obligation. We want to see government increasing the number of staff and providing mama kit in hospitals.”
Kawesi Saad, of Integrated Community Based Initiatives, called on the government to increase the health budget to 15 percent. He said: “No mother should die while giving a life.”
It was hoped that the demonstration’s theme, Not Another Needless Death, would force the Ugandan government to wake up to its obligations in improving the health sector and focus on maternal health.
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