Closure of Schools for COVID-19 for almost 2 years: The World Failed the Children of Uganda!

 By Eze Eluchie, Esq.

 

As the world rails against the Taliban’s for stopping teenage girls and above from attending schools, it has just emerged that in Uganda, under the guise of COVID-19 protocols, the government of Museveni had stopped all schools from operating for almost 2 years!

 

How was this possible?

 

Millions of Ugandan children were denied education under bogus efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19 and the world kept silent?

 

Where were the #UNICEF #UNIFEM #UNDP #UN #AU #ECA #EU #Commonwealth #ICC when this Crime against a generation, crimes against nature and Crime Against Humanity was being perpetuated? And what were the NGOs and CSOs in Uganda doing whilst this travesty lasted?

 

Why was it possible for the Ugandan President and his Ministers and anybody from that government to travel outside Uganda? And to what purpose would such a trip be claimed to have been made? What were the development partners of Uganda engaging the government for? #USAID #DFID and so on? Were these agencies aware and merely looked the other way? Were they complicit in these crimes?

 

The actions of Museveni’s regime to deny Ugandan children education for such a long period, with its attendant consequences of wasted childhood, diminished life expectations and values and stunted lives qualifies as a Crime Against Humanity under Articles 7 (1) c, e, f and k of the Rome Statute.

 

The closure of Ugandan schools for such a long period when nearly all students in the impoverished East African country do not have access to online education facilities and the top brass in government who had the capability to move their children to other countries to continue their education, can be described as a deliberate vicious attack effected with knowledge of the dire consequences the attack will have on Ugandan children.

 

The ICC has convicted persons for crimes against humanity on far lesser charges, this crime against the children and peoples of Uganda is one that the perpetrators must be held to account if indeed the raison d’etre of the ICC and the Statute of Rome has to make any sense.

 

This crime against the children and youths of Uganda, is one that cries ffor and deserves international justice.

 

 

 

Picture: Children in a school in Uganda and a picture of President Museveni.