Maria Burnett

Thinking about Uganda as the Election Day dawns. So many decades of repression. Ugandans - just like all of us - deserve to be able to vote in peace AND express themselves, free of fear and free of reprisals.

‘Tortured’ Ugandan activist dumped at border following arrest in Tanzania East African rights groups condemn Tanzania after Agather Atuhaire was found at the Ugandan border.

East African rights groups condemn Tanzania after Agather Atuhaire was found at the Ugandan border.

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Lydia Mugambe: UN judge who forced woman to work as slave jailed for more than six years Lydia Mugambe, 50 was found guilty of conspiring to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law, facilitating travel with a view to exploitation, forcing someone to work, and conspirac...

Lydia Mugambe, a United Nations judge, has been jailed for six years and four months after being convicted of forcing a young Ugandan woman to work for her as a slave in Britain.

Some days bring miracles.

Finally #Uganda: All charges or all criminal trials or pending trials before the courts martial involving civilians must immediately cease and be transferred to ordinary courts of law with competent Jurisdiction. Chief Justice Owiny-Dollo, Supreme Court ruling on military prosecution of civilians.

Biden commutes sentences of 2,500 non-violent drug offenders

A headline reads: Judge Strikes Down Arkansas Law That Threatened Librarians With Criminal Charges. A sentence reads: Republicans passed the law in 2023, joining a wave of other conservative states and counties around the U.S. that have increasingly sought to restrict the availability of certain books.

A federal judge struck down parts of an Arkansas law that included prison sentences for librarians and booksellers for providing books that might be considered “harmful” to minors. nyti.ms/3DIpLBi

Pie chart titled: How many people are locked up in the US?

A grim reminder that in the era of mass incarceration, 1.9 million people are confined in the US away from their loved ones this holiday season.

Biden urged to empty federal death row before Trump takes office Joe Biden ran for president opposing the death penalty. He faces calls to commute federal death sentences before President-elect Donald Trump assumes office.

Biden was the first president to openly oppose the death penalty – but his actions don't reflect that at all.

POTUS: The clock is ticking on your term. It's not too late to do the right thing and clear the federal death penalty now.
www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Biden isn't the first president to pardon a relative. Here's how the power works Biden is now the third president to pardon a relative, after Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. Here's a look at the commonplace — yet often controversial — presidential power.

There is much more Pres. Biden could do before his term ends — like commuting sentences for low-risk individuals, people with disproportionate drug sentences, and people with death sentences, @lbeisen.bsky.social tells @npr.org.

The EU's insipid response to Uganda's death penalty for gays After Uganda passed legislation for life imprisonment — or even the death sentence — for homosexual acts, the World Bank pulled funding, the US imposed sanctions, and the EU? The EU issued a weakly-wo...

Together with @mariaburnett.bsky.social , I've written a critical piece on the #EU policy in #Uganda, which we argue, is counterproductive in the current context. Please ignore the title (inserted by publication), this is a much broader problem than the anti-gay law: euobserver.com/africa/arbb2...

An I.V.F. Mix-Up, a Shocking Discovery and an Unbearable Choice Two couples in California discovered they were raising each other’s genetic children. Should they switch their girls?

Have you read this yet? It’s the best thing I’ve read in a long time, by @susandominus.bsky.social. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/m...

A street scene in Kampala - photo credit Sophie Neiman.

Hey! @sophie-neiman.bsky.social and I have been looking to connect with other journalists and analysts with an interest in East Africa, so we collaborated on a starter pack. Please get in touch if you'd like to be added - and welcome!

go.bsky.app/U148YzY

And lastly, a few of my favorite sunsets from around the world:

SLS’s Rule of Law Impact Lab, Florida Rising, and Human Rights Watch Issue Report: Florida School Laws Discriminate against Black, LGBTQ People | Stanford Law School Since 2021, Florida has enacted policies and laws that restrict public school students’ ability to access vital information about race, history, sex

And lastly for today, a long report written with Stanford Law School’s Rule of Impact Lab, Human Rights Watch and Florida Rising earlier this year on discriminatory educational censorship: law.stanford.edu/2024/06/19/s...

Can prison cause dementia? New Northwestern study explores how incarceration impacts health The university was recently awarded a grant for a first-of-its-kind study on how incarceration affects health, age-related conditions and risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

And this one, not authored by me but I am quoted, about dementia in US prisons and the importance of compassionate release. chicago.suntimes.com/health/2024/...

Business as Usual: The Kasese Massacre and Power Politics in Uganda - The Elephant The patterns of state violence in Uganda are sadly repetitive as the ruling party obstructs burgeoning criticism to President Yoweri Museveni’s decades-long grip on power.

Third, a long piece about Uganda’s tragic Kasese massacre of November 2016 and the politics of those killings. www.theelephant.info/analysis/202...

Addressing Uganda's Crackdown on LGBTQ+ Rights | CSIS Events What is driving the latest crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights in Uganda, and how can the international community support Uganda's LGBTQ+ community?

You can watch an event at CSIS with several Ugandan activists here for more info about the horrors of the law: www.csis.org/events/addre...

Uganda’s Horrific Anti-LGBTIQ+ Bill Returns: The Stakes Are Higher Than Ever The draft anti-LGBTIQ+ bill passed by Uganda's parliament will have far-reaching implications for fundamental human rights in the country if signed into law.

Second, this piece about Uganda’s horrific Anti LGBTQ law. Sadly the President signed it into law shortly after this came out. Uganda’s Supreme Court should eventually hear a challenge to the law but it hasn’t been scheduled yet. www.csis.org/analysis/uga...

For inmates released during COVID, online-everything makes coming home a digital headache COVID made re-entry exponentially harder for those without digital skills. We must tackle the digital divide and ensure digital literacy for all.

As I start this BlueSky journey, I am going to post a few things I have written over the years that cover topics I care about. Happy reading… Some are quite old! First up: www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...