Visiting Forces Act

Defines "civil court" as a court in Uganda having jurisdiction in criminal matters.

For legal proceedings in Uganda, service courts' constitution and proceedings are deemed proper and their sentences are deemed within jurisdiction and lawful if executed according to their tenor; certificates by the officer commanding a visiting force are conclusive evidence of detention cause and of persons sitting as a service court (but not of membership).

The President may, if requested by the sending State, direct a home force by general or special orders to arrest members of a visiting force alleged to have committed offences under the sending State's law and to hand over any person so arrested to the visiting force's authorities.

Members of visiting forces sentenced by a sending State's service court may be temporarily detained in a detention barrack in Uganda under the authority of the President, when the President acts at the request of the sending State.

Members of a visiting force are exempt from certain Penal Code Act provisions when acting in the course of official duty.

When parts of the home force must operate with other forces, the President may place the home force (or part) under the command of a senior visiting-force officer; and the commander of a cooperating part of the home force may, by agreement with the other commander, define command powers and order of precedence between equivalent ranks.

Provisions of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act and of the Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces Act that relate to matters dealt with in this Act cease to have effect, and where there is any conflict the provisions of this Act prevail.

Service courts and service authorities of the sending State may exercise within Uganda or on board Ugandan aircraft the powers conferred on them by the sending State's law, in relation to members of a visiting force, subject to other provisions of this Act.

Civil courts have the primary right to exercise jurisdiction over alleged offences by members of a visiting force, except for offences listed in subsection (2).

If a member of a visiting force is tried by a service court and convicted or acquitted, a civil court must not try them again for the same offence; likewise if tried by a civil court and convicted or acquitted, a service court must not try them again within Uganda, except that a service court may still try for disciplinary rule violations arising from the same act or omission.

When, under section 3, a civil court or a service court of a visiting force has the primary right to exercise jurisdiction, that court has the right to deal with charges in the first instance, but that right may be waived.

Magistrates must summon witnesses to service courts when requested by the convening authority, the presiding officer, or an officer designated by the presiding officer; summoned persons may be required to produce relevant documents except those protected by privilege; witnesses are entitled to fees and allowances from the visiting force equivalent to civil‑court rates.

Certain acts by witnesses or counsel before a service court are offences; civil courts must inquire when such offences are referred to them.

Members of any service court exercising jurisdiction under this Act, and witnesses before that court, are entitled to the same immunities and privileges as members of and witnesses before a court-martial under the law relating to the Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces.

A certificate from a sending State's service authority that a visiting force member did not act in the performance of official duty is receivable in civil court and is prima facie evidence of that fact.