Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act, 2009

This section provides definitions for terms used in the Act, including “child”, “debt bondage”, “currency point”, “exploitation”, “forced labour”, “Gazette”, “human sacrifice”, “Minister”, “prostitution”, “public office”, “public officer”, “public service”, “pornography”, “sex tourism”, “sexual exploitation”, “slavery”, “slave trade”, “trafficking in persons”, and “victim of trafficking”.

Prohibits any person from recruiting, transporting, transferring, harbouring or receiving a person for the purpose of exploitation; establishes penalties including death (for human sacrifice), life imprisonment, ten years imprisonment, and fines/closure for legal persons; trafficking of a child is an offence even without the specified means.

Any person who commits aggravated trafficking in persons under specified circumstances (including victim being a child, organised syndicate, offenders who are relatives, public officers, military or law enforcement personnel, or acts involving harmful rituals or causing death/serious harm) is liable on conviction to imprisonment for life.

Any person must not commit acts involving a child such as those listed (acts under section 2 in relation to a child; using a child in armed conflict; removing parts for human sacrifice; using a child to commit a crime; abandoning a child outside the country; or using a child or body part in witchcraft or rituals).

Anyone who, knowing or having reason to believe a person is a victim of trafficking, engages that victim's labour or services commits an offence and faces up to ten years' imprisonment on conviction.

Prohibits any person from various acts that facilitate trafficking in persons, including misuse of premises, falsifying immigration documents, giving false information, advertising trafficking material, selling or buying persons, and improperly handling children; contains an exception for lawful, good-faith child transfers done in the child's best interests.

Any person is prohibited from committing or attempting various acts of trafficking in persons, including recruitment, transport, harbouring, matching for sexual exploitation, confiscation of documents to deny movement or services, and illicit adoption.

People convicted under this Act must disclose that conviction when applying for jobs involving authority or care of children, or when offering or agreeing to care for or supervise children.

Anyone in the community who knows (or has reason to believe) that an offence under this part has been committed or is intended must report it to the police or other relevant authority.

Measures for the protection, assistance and support to victims of trafficking shall be interpreted and applied in a way that is not discriminatory to persons on the basis of race, religion, belief, age, family status, culture, language, nationality or gender.

Defines support and protections for victims of trafficking, including entitlement to information, referral by public officers, exemption from civil filing fees for those instituting proceedings, and that Government and other agencies shall provide protection and assistance.

Specified actors must recognise and respect the privacy of trafficking victims; certain publications identifying victims without authority are an offence punishable by a fine of two hundred fifty currency points.

The Minister, with appropriate agencies, must facilitate repatriation of trafficking victims to and from Uganda and must verify and issue documents for Ugandan or permanent resident victims; the Minister may negotiate or facilitate extensions of residence and work permits and maintenance when repatriation would risk the victim's safety or when needed for court proceedings.

When a person is convicted of trafficking, the court must order that person to pay restitution to the victim or other person or organisation that incurred expenses on the victim’s behalf.

If a person is convicted of trafficking in persons, the court may order that person to pay compensation to the victim for physical injury, emotional distress, pain and suffering, loss or damage, or any other damage the court deems fit.

A victim retains the right to receive restitution or compensation even if returned to their country or absent from the jurisdiction.

A case under this Act must be tried in any of three places: where the offence was committed, where any component of the offence occurred, or where the trafficked person actually resided at the time the offence was committed.

The Act applies to certain offences committed outside Uganda (including where the offender is a Ugandan citizen or permanent resident, where the victim is a Ugandan citizen, where the offence is partly inside and partly outside Uganda, or where substantial effects occurred in Uganda) and provides that no proceedings shall be instituted without the written consent of the Attorney General; if consent is given proceedings may be instituted in an appropriate court which shall have jurisdiction.

Any person charged with an offence under this Act may be extradited under existing extradition laws.

The Minister must designate an office responsible for coordinating, monitoring and overseeing this Act; the designated office must perform a listed set of functions including prevention programmes, annual planning, victim protection, data collection, coordination, training, rule proposals, and other necessary activities.

The court must order confiscation and forfeiture of proceeds and properties from the crime; if such proceeds are destroyed or hidden the offender must pay their value; the offender must pay awards of damages and costs and, if they fail to pay, these are recoverable like a civil debt.

The Minister may make regulations, by statutory instrument, to effect the implementation of the Act.

Section 23 has been deleted by section 3(b) of General Notice 2917 of 2024.