Parliament Consults Criminal Division Judges on Human Sacrifice Bill
Group Photo: Participants of the consultative meeting
Parliament on Friday (January 10, 2020) held a consultative meeting with of the Criminal Division at Golf Course Hotel in Kampala.
The meeting,which was hosted in partnership with World Vision, was intended to inform the last stage of the drafting of the Prevention and Prohibition of Human Sacrifice Bill, 2019.
Judges; Hon. Lady Justice Flavia Senoga Anglin, Hon. Lady Justice Jane Frances Abodo and Hon. Justice Yasin Nyanzi took part in the exercise.
Hon Benard Atiku, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Drafts Committee, said the Bill once in place would establish human sacrifice as an offence independent of murder. He noted that the vice is rapidly increasing in Uganda as the nation develops yet the rate of successful prosecutions of perpetrators is low.
"Therefore is need for a specific law on human sacrifice that takes cognizance of the nature of the offence and provides specific rules to deal with the practice."
A number of amendments were made to the proposed Bill and these include:
- Exceptions to the inadmissibility of the accomplice's evidence
- Defining all the terms used in the Bill
- Include specific timelines when a file can stay in specific offices (Police, DPP and Court)
- Consider holding specific criminal sessions for human sacrifice cases
Hon. Atiku and Parliament’s Counsel General appreciated the Judges' views adding that these will be incorporated into the draft before submission for the certificate of financial implications.
Several Members of Parliament, officials from the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs as well as representatives from the World Vision also attended the meeting.
Posted 13th, January 2020
