Know Your Rights 23: The right to fair treatment

The Ugandan Bill of Rights, Chapter 4 of the Constitution of Uganda, details the rights of all Ugandan citizens. Whether you are a person with a disability (PWD) or not, all these rights are yours.

Article 42 of the Constitution of Uganda says departments of the government have the obligation to deal fairly with members of the public. If a decision they make does not follow the correct procedure or it discriminates against you, you have the right to seek judgement through the courts.

If you are a PWD and a government department makes a decision against you, you have the right to request a review of their decision. A review (conducted by the department) will establish whether the correct procedure was followed. By law the government must follow the correct procedure. If they do not follow the correct procedure they break the law. If the review shows the procedure was correct, and if you believe you have been discriminated against, you can go to court and get an independent decision (see Uganda Human Rights Commission: Complaints Handling Procedures Manual and Jurisdiction ratione materiae of the Uganda Human Rights Commission: Making sense of the ambiguity in the jurisprudence).

The ruling means that the case can now be heard on its own merits.

Article 42 of the Constitution of Uganda is written like this:

42. Right to just and fair treatment in administrative decisions. 

Any person appearing before any administrative official or body has a right to be treated justly and fairly and shall have a right to apply to a court of law in respect of any administrative decision taken against him or her.