Uganda ratified the Maputo Protocol in 2010 with reservations on reproductive health. In March 2024 the African Commission asked it to consider lifting them. RFLD’s report Lifting the Reservations: nine country briefs on the Maputo Protocol explains what the reservations do and how Uganda’s Constitution and its next periodic report open a path to withdrawal.
Key facts
Uganda ratified the Protocol on 22 July 2010. The African Commission’s Advocacy Framework lists two reservations:
- Article 14(1)(a), on the right of women to control their fertility
- Article 14(2)(c), on the obligation to authorise medical abortion in specified cases
Uganda’s combined periodic report under the African Charter, together with its initial report under the Protocol, was examined at the 77th Ordinary Session in 2023. The Commission adopted its concluding observations in March 2024. Uganda’s 9th periodic report was due in February 2026.
An open question on Article 21
The Commission’s 2024 concluding observations refer to reservations on Articles 14 and 21. Article 21 concerns equitable inheritance. The Advocacy Framework lists only the two provisions of Article 14. The report flags this gap in its section on methods and advises advocates to check the text held by the African Union depositary. One of its proposed questions for dialogue asks Uganda to clarify the point directly.
What the reservations do
The reservations “limit the right of women to control their fertility” and the obligation to authorise medical abortion. The Advocacy Framework describes their human effect plainly: survivors of rape are “compelled to carry pregnancies to term”.
The Commission also gave a figure. It found that unsafe abortion accounts for 26 per cent of maternal mortality in Uganda. That finding links a legal reservation to a measurable public health burden.
Why they can be lifted
Uganda’s Constitution leaves room for reform. Article 22(2) provides that no person may terminate the life of an unborn child “except as may be authorised by law”. The Constitution therefore anticipates a law that sets out when termination is lawful.
The brief argues that a law adopted under Article 22(2) would allow Uganda to align its legislation with Article 14(2)(c). Once that law exists, the reservation would have little left to protect. In its March 2024 concluding observations, the Commission asked Uganda to “consider lifting the reservations on Articles 14 and 21, and to adopt legislation to allow safe abortion as provided in Article 14(2)(c)”.
Uganda can also look to its region. Rwanda withdrew its reservation to Article 14(2)(c) in 2012, showing that a reservation on this exact provision can be lifted.
Questions for dialogue
- What steps has Uganda taken on the March 2024 recommendation to consider lifting the reservations on Articles 14 and 21?
- When will Parliament adopt the law envisaged by Article 22(2) of the Constitution?
- Does Uganda’s reservation extend to Article 21, as stated in the 2024 concluding observations?
- What measures are in place to reduce maternal deaths linked to unsafe abortion?
The ask
The brief asks the government to report on the 2024 recommendations in its 9th periodic report and to start a review of the reservations. Parliament is asked to adopt the law envisaged by Article 22(2).
The national human rights institution is asked to monitor maternal deaths linked to unsafe abortion. Civil society is encouraged to submit a shadow report once the 9th report is scheduled for examination. RFLD’s manual on shadow reports under the Maputo Protocol explains how to prepare one.
Using the reporting cycle
The State reporting procedure gives advocates a clear sequence. The 2024 recommendations are on record. The 9th report should say what Uganda has done about them. The Commission can then ask, in its next dialogue, for a timetable for withdrawal. Civil society can then follow up whatever the Commission recommends. The report’s toolkit includes a model shadow report paragraph that invites the Commission to do exactly that.
RFLD is sharing the brief with the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa and the Country Rapporteur Commissioner for Uganda. It will support member organisations in Uganda to include the reservations in their shadow reports.
About the report
This article draws on RFLD’s report Lifting the Reservations: nine country briefs on the Maputo Protocol, published on 4 October 2026. Read the summary, download the English edition or the French edition.
