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Signe Winding Albjerg, the Danish Ambassador; the European Union Ambassador to Uganda, Mr Jan Sadek and Dr. Jimmy Spire Ssentongo at the award ceremony at the residence of the EU ambassador in Kololo on Thursday.
Congratulations! 🎉👏🏼@SpireJim wins the 2024 EU Humans Rights Defenders Award Thank you Doctor for your inspiring endeavours for public accountability. We also salute the runners up, Ms Jessica Ruth Ataa and Doreen Kyazze. Merci. #EUHRDAward2024 pic.twitter.com/KQ0fffEeON
— France in Uganda 🇫🇷🇺🇬 (@FrenchEmbassyUg) May 2, 2024
Dr. Jimmy Spire Ssentongo, a Ugandan professor, academic, columnist, portraitist, author, and editorial cartoonist, has been awarded the European Union Human Rights Defenders Award for 2024.
Dr Ssentongo won the award for using his social media platform X to demand accountability from the government.
Presenting the 2024 EU Human Rights Defenders Award on Thursday, Signe Winding Albjerg, the Danish Ambassador, praised Dr Ssentongo’s “courage and resilience” as he has opened up “alternative options for active citizen engagement”.
“In the past year, Spire has used his public platform to highlight issues of accountability through “exhibitions” on social media. This has earned him significant praise but also threats due to his exposure of wrongdoing in public life,” the EU said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
“Despite the risks, he has continued to share information and take part in public debates aimed at improving the quality of public service in Uganda,” they added.
He beat Jesca Ruth Ataa, a human rights defender from Kotido, Karamoja who leads Nakere Rural Women Activists (NARWOA), an umbrella community-based organisation for women’s groups, and Doreen Kyazze, a lawyer and human rights activist, who has campaigned against the death penalty, to the award.
Through social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter Dr spire started what he called ‘exhibitions’ where he asked the different government agencies, ministries, and departments for accountability and transparency.
Some of the exhibitions have been about roads, the education sector, health and government hospitals, and the most recent #ugandaparliamentexhibition which also saw Dr Spire receive death threats through the same platform.
Of recent, Dr Spire alongside his colleagues like Agather Atuhaire (a journalist and lawyer), Mr Anthony Naif, and Mr Godwin Toko through their social media accounts have demanded accountability from different government agencies with the most recent being the Parliament.