Amici curiae submission in support of challenge of the constitutionality of Rogue and Vagabond law in Uganda

Campaign partners, Pan African Lawyers Union and the Southern Africa Litigation Centre filed the following amici curiae brief in support of the campaign partner Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF)’s current challenge of the constitutionality of the colonial-era Rogue and Vagabond law before the Constitutional Court of Uganda.

Written submissions in Constitutional Petition No. 36 of 2018 – Francis Tumwesige Ateenyi – challenge sections 167(1)(c) and (d) of the Penal Code and were submitted on 30 August 2021. The provisions criminalise ‘every suspected person or reputed thief who has no visible means of subsistence and cannot give a good account of himself or herself’ and ‘a person found wandering in or upon or near any premises or in any road or highway or any place adjacent thereto or in any public place at such time and under such circumstances as to lead to the conclusion that such person is there for an illegal or disorderly purpose‘ respectively.