Uganda’s Constitutional Court has delivered a major victory for the health of pregnant women in that country, writes Carmel Rickard in her Matter of Justice column. The case was brought by the Centre for Health, Human Rights and Development, along with a health law expert and the relatives of two women who had died in childbirth because of Uganda’s inadequate maternal healthcare conditions.
The five Constitutional Court judges found that indeed, the government was under-funding maternal healthcare to the extent that it was unconstitutional. To ensure that this improved, they ordered that the court had to be provided with an audit report on the status of maternal health in Uganda over the next two financial years.
The judges further awarded general damages to two of the applicants, relatives of pregnant women who had died because of the violation of their rights to life and health.
Rickard writes that while the decision has been widely hailed for taking the rights of pregnant women seriously, it also shows that Uganda’s Constitutional Court is understanding its own role in a changing light: in 2012 the same case had come before the Constitutional Court but the court refused to hear it on the basis that it amounted to consideration of political issues, namely government allocation of funds to maternal health.
However, an appeal to the Supreme Court – Uganda’s apex court – resulted in an order that the Constitutional Court should consider the issue. Back before a now-differently composed Constitutional Court, the matter fared rather better second time round.
[link url="https://legalbrief.co.za/login/?next=/legalbrief/newsletters/newsletter/8258/email/"]A Matter of Justice[/link]
[link url="https://www.chr.up.ac.za/images/researchunits/wru/documents_/caselaw/law_advocacy_for_women_in_uganda_v_attorney_general_constitutional_petitions.pdf"]Uganda Constitutional Court judgment June 2012[/link]
[link url="https://ulii.org/ug/judgment/supreme-court-uganda/2015/69"]Uganda Supreme Court judgment October 2015[/link]
[link url="https://ulii.org/ug/judgment/constitutional-court-uganda/2020/12"]Uganda Constitutional Court judgment August 2020[/link]