The Chief Justice, Hon. Justice Bart M. Katureebe, on March 15, 2018 opened two-day Training for the Resolution of Anti-Human Trafficking, at the Sheraton Hotel in Kampala.
The Judiciary organised the Conference in partnership with the HumanTrafficking Institute, Willow International and Pepperdine University. It is intended to raise awareness on trafficking of persons.
Notably present at the Conference were: Hon. Lady Judge Stacy Boulware Eurie (Superior Court of California); Justice Antoinette Moore (Supreme Court of Belize and Tanima Kishore (Human Trafficking Institute). Others were the Deputy Chief Justice, Hon. Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, the Principal Judge, Hon.Justice Dr. Yorokamu Bamwine and the Director of Public Prosecution, Hon. Justice Mike Chibita, among others.
The Chief Justice said time has come for government and other relevant players to stop trafficking in all its forms that he said has of recent becomerampant.
"Something that we have to address is child sacrifice and trafficking,"said the Chief Justice.
He said he grew up in a rural place but had never heard of childsacrifice and child trafficking until recently.
"..never heard of a child being sacrificed until of recent, he said,adding, "You will arrest them, jail them for long sentences or even sentencethem to death but if you don't know why this is happening, it's a waste oftime.
Human trafficking is the practice of illegally recruiting, transporting people by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion from one country or area to another, typically for the purposes of forced labour or commercial sexual exploitation.
Hon. Justice Katureebe urged the government and other stakeholders to get interested in who trafficks children from the Karamoja sub region and brings them to the city.
"On the issue of children being trafficked from Karamoja and other places to the city where we can all see, isn't there anything we can do as a government? Can we get interested in those children and who brings them here?"the CJ said.
He appreciated the University of Pepperdine together with Ugandan stakeholders for their determination to contribute to finding a solution to this is worthwhile.
According to the 2013 Annual Trafficking in Persons Report, there were 837 victims that year.
Uganda is a source, transit and destination point for victims of trafficking in persons. Trafficking in persons has been attributed to factors like rampant unemployment, poverty, high population growth and poor systems of education.
Other factors include the search for opportunities to work abroad or in cheap labour, demand for commercial sex services and inadequate immigration policies and laws.
Posted 16th, March 2018
