Examination of the roles and capacities of duty bearers responsible for protecting the human rights to adequate food, nutritional health and wellbeing in Ugandan children’s homes

Abstract

BackgroundThe majority of Ugandan children face vulnerability and malnutrition. As a State Party to international human rights treaties, Uganda has legal obligations of guaranteeing the fundamental rights and the best interest of the nation’s children. Despite being protected under international and national law, Uganda is not providing adequate child protection, including safeguarding children’s food security. Numerous privately owned and unregulated children’s homes face this problem. The overall aim of the study was to examine to what extent children’s homes’ operations are consistent with the right to adequate food, nutritional health and wellbeing of children.MethodsWe performed a qualitative role- and capacity analysis of duty bearers with human rights duties towards children living in children’s homes. We studied three groups of duty bearers: caretakers working in private children’s homes, State actors working in government and its institutions, and non-State actors working in civil society organizations. A human rights based approach guided all aspects of the study. An analysis of the roles, performance and capacities of duty bearers was employed, with individual face-to-face structured qualitative in-depth interviews, self-administered structured questionnaires, and a structured observational study, as well as a desk review of relevant literature.ResultsThe State of Uganda’s efforts to respect and realize its obligations towards children living in children’s homes is inadequate. There are numerous capacity gaps among the duty bearers, and the concepts of human rights and the best interest of the child are not well understood among the duty bearers.ConclusionThe efforts of the State of Uganda to realize its human rights obligations towards children in children’s homes are lacking in important areas. Hence the State does not fulfill its minimum obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to ensure all children freedom from hunger. There is a need for capacity development at all levels in the Ugandan state and the international society to delimit capacity gaps in order to realize these human rights’ obligations.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12914-018-0156-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

COVID- 19 and human right to food: lived experiences of the urban poor in Kenya with the impacts of government’s response measures, a participatory qualitative study

“…For instance, a study conducted in the United States reported violation of the human right to food in so far as mostly indigenous communities, people of color and those of lower socioeconomic backgrounds were struggling to put food on the table and were living paycheck to paycheck with limited support from the government [ 20 ]. Similarly a study in Uganda indicated that the state did not fulfil its obligation under the ICESCR to ensure children have their right to food and freedom from hunger [ 51 ].…”

Scaling Up Positive Parenting Practices in Uganda: Research Evidence From an Integrated Community-Led Initiative for Reducing Violence Against Children in Lira District, Northern Uganda

“…This perception is held by a broad spectrum of community members including the young, the old, in-school and out of school children, men, and women. This view of children's rights as foreign continues to undermine advancement of child protection programs in Uganda (Ashukem, 2019;Katsui & Kumpuvuori, 2008;Olafsen et al, 2019), in Africa generally (London, 2017), and throughout the Third World (Cornwall & Nyamu-Musembi, 2004;Ife, 2012;London, 2017). To break through such strongly held beliefs, there is a need to integrate human rights with community engagement (London, 2017).…”

Monitoreo del derecho humano a la alimentación adecuada: revisión sistemática

“…La metodología de análisis de contenido tanto de instrumentos como de políticas fue una de las más utilizada entre los estudios incluidos en la presente revisión (7)(8)(9)12,13). Con relación a lo anterior, la aplicación de grupos focales y entrevistas semiestructuradas fueron técnicas realizadas en la mayoría de los estudios incluidos que buscaban explorar la percepción de diversos actores clave (16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22).…”

“…Dos de los estudios que evaluaron el EBDH, uno realizado en Estados Unidos y otro en Uganda (16,17), encontraron desconocimiento del mandato y la autoridad del Ministerio de Agricultura y del Ministerio de Salud, como competentes responsables de garantizar el DHAA y la política de seguridad alimentaria, así como incumplimiento del EBDH para la buena gobernanza. Se encontró también una inadecuada incorporación de los instrumentos de monitoreo de DH ratificados en la legislación nacional, lo que indica una falta de compromiso del Estado y de cumplimiento de las normas de DH.…”