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a) Unlawful search of the person, home or other property or
b) Unlawful entry by others
2) No person shall be subjected to interference with the privacy of that person’s home,
correspondence , communication and or other property.
While the Constitution is loud and clear on privacy of the home, correspondence,
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communication and property, it does not directly address the issue under adjudication ,
namely, the publication of a photograph of a claimant taken in a public space. In other
words, photographs taken in a home would be deemed private and their publication
without consent of the owner would be deemed an infringement of the right to privacy.
This point was made by Justice Madrama in HCCS. No. 298 of 2012 Sikuku v Baati
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Ltd where the plaintiff’s photographs on a billboard taken while on the employer’s
premises was deemed not to be an infringement of the right to privacy.
Counsel for the plaintiff rightly observed that article 17 of the International Covenant
on Civil and Political rights (ICCPR) is part of our legal regime as Uganda ratified it in
1995.
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The article proclaims
‘No on shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his privacy,
family, home or correspondence , nor to unlawful attacks on his honor and
reputation’.
As the ICCPR is part of our legal system, it follows this court is bound to recognize the
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right to privacy generally even when a person is in a public space. The fact that the
plaintiff avers his image was published on a billboard without his consent establishes a
cause of action within the broad framework of the ICCPR which prohibits arbitrary and
unlawful interference with the privacy of any person.
Whether the plaintiff’s right to privacy was infringed
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It was counsel for the defendant’s contention that this article is mutatis mutandis with
article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and therefore
it is appropriate to consider the approach adopted in Weller and others v Associated
Newspapers ltd [2016] 3 ALL.E.R 357 where the court first looks into whether
claimant had a reasonable expectation for privacy . If so then the court conducts a
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