Global Progress Towards Ending the Sexual Exploitation of Children
A global problem requires truly global solutions to address the sexual exploitation of children.
Indicators
Age of Consent
Partial
Age of sexual consent is 18 years. The national legislation does not provide for a close-in-age exemption. In fact the offence of "child-to-child" sex expressely criminalises sexual acts between children.
Disrupting Harm Uganda Report, 2021
Extraterritoriality & Extradition
Partial
Active and passive extraterritoriality is provided for trafficking offences but not for other SEC-related crimes. Extraterritoriality extends to OCSE offences if the computer, program or data used was in Uganda at the material time of the offence regardless of the nationality or citizenship of the offender and whether he or she is within or outside Uganda. Double criminality does not apply for extraterritoriality.
Extradition is provided for SEC crimes only in line with treaties Uganda is a party of. Trafficking crimes qualify for extradition in any case. Double criminality does not apply for extradition.
SECTT Legal Checklist Uganda, 2020
CSAM Definition
No
The national legislation does not provide a definition of CSAM which is in line with international standards. The definition provided does not include depictions of the sexual parts of a child’s body for primarily sexual purposes. Positively, the definition includes materials depicting a person appearing to be a child as well as computer/digitally generated CSAM.
Disrupting Harm Uganda Report, 2021
Background Check Required
No
There are no mandatory legal provisions for criminal background checks nor legislation prohibiting convicted sex offenders to hold positions involving or facilitating contact with children
SECTT Legal Checklist Uganda, 2020
National Commitments
No
Uganda has ratified the CRC, the OPSC and the ILO Convention No. 182.
Uganda has also ratified the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child.
Uganda has not ratified the Trafficking Protocol, the OPIC, the UNWTO Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics nor the AU Convention on Cyber Security and the Council of Europe's Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.
Disrupting Harm Uganda Report, 2021
Child Advocacy Centers
No
There is currently no Child Advocacy Centres established in Uganda
Disrupting Harm Uganda Report, 2021
SEC Police Unit
Yes
Uganda has 236 offices dedicated to the investigation of child sexual abuse and exploitation. The Sexual and Gender-based Violence Unit investigates cases of sexual exploitation of children.
Disrupting Harm Uganda Report, 2021
Protection Standards Travel and Tourism
No
There are no child protection standards for the travel and tourism industry in place.
SECTT Legal Checklist Uganda, 2020
Public SEC Case Data
Partial
Case data is only available for child trafficking offences. This data is disaggregated to some extent. No information has been found on whether this data is made available periodically and whether it contains data on offenders and on compensation sought by child victims.
ECO Uganda, 2019
Age of Consent Law is Appropriate
The age of sexual consent for both males and females is 18 and a close in age exemption (up to 3 years) is provided for consensual sexual relationships between adolescents.
The age of sexual consent is the legally defined age at which a person is considered mature enough to agree to sexual activity. The age of sexual consent varies across jurisdictions around the world and there is no international legal instrument establishing it, however various forms of advocacy have encouraged States to establish a minimum age under which engaging in sexual contact is considered a criminal offence. This is intended to prevent sexual contact with children and to prevent argument that the child consented as a defence.
Often national provisions related to the age of sexual consent include an exception, known as a close-in-age exemption, making consensual sexual activities between young people lawful if the partners are of similar ages and the age difference is not higher than a certain number of years.
To ensure that cases of child sexual exploitation do not go unpunished, ECPAT advocates for the age of sexual consent to be set at 18 for both males and females with a close-in-age exemption of 2-3 years provided in order to ensure young people are not penalised for consensual sexual acts with peers. The age from which the exemption applies should be established by States but may begin for young people somewhere between 12 and 16 years of age.
Yes The national legislation explicitly indicates that the age of sexual consent unequivocally is 18 for both males and females, with a close-in-age exemption for sexual acts between peers (of up to 3 years) is provided by law.