The contribution of notions of religion in drafting some of the provisions in the 1995 Constitution of Uganda

Abstract

After the 1986 guerrilla war, Ugandans embarked on the process of making a new constitution. The Constitutional Commission visited different parts of Uganda to gather peoples’ views on what issues should be addressed in the new constitution. The Constitutional Commission report shows that religious leaders and groups made submissions to it on various issues. The recommendations in the Constitutional Commission report were debated by the Constituent Assembly which drafted and later adopted the new constitution. In this article, I rely on the report of the Constitutional Commission and the Proceedings of the Constituent Assembly to show the contribution of the notions of religion or religious beliefs in drafting the constitutional provisions: children’s right to education and healthcare; right to life of an unborn child; and state religion. I argue that the Constituent Assembly delegates were not consistent in the way they invoked the notions of religion or religious beliefs during the debates on the constitutional provisions discussed in this article.

Keywords

• religion
• religious beliefs
• constitution
• Uganda
• human rights
• drafting