Know Your Rights 22: The right to information

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 41 of the Constitution of Uganda says that you have the right to have access to information the government has collected, provided it doesn't interfere with security, sovereignty or the privacy of another person. Laws will be in place so that information can be accessed.

If you are a PWD this means that statistics are available from the government. For instance census information about the number of PWDs in Uganda, information about the number of children with disabilities registering for education, or budget information is available for every citizen in Uganda.

The following blog posts were compiled from data freely accessible from the Ugandan government:

• Estimate of the Numbers of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in Uganda data from Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2011 and National Population and Housing Census 2014 – Main Report.
• Educating Children With Disabilities data from UGANDA EDUCATION STATISTICAL ABSTRACT 2010 and UGANDA EDUCATION STATISTICAL ABSTRACT 2011.
• Beware of Statistics data from Uganda Budget Information.

2015-2016 Budget Framework Paper: Education. Special needs was a paltry 0.12% of the total budget.

Article 41 of the Constitution of Uganda is written like this:

41. Right of access to information.

(1) Every citizen has a right of access to information in the possession of the State or any other organ or agency of the State except where the release of the information is likely to prejudice the security or sovereignty of the State or interfere with the right to the privacy of any other person.

(2) Parliament shall make laws prescribing the classes of information referred to in clause (1) of this article and the procedure for obtaining access to that information.