It is our considered opinion as IRCU that Parliament should deliberate on the following recommendations before passing the Protection of the Sovereignty Bill-2026.

1. The Parliament should revise vague and overly broad definitions like the meaning of a foreign agent, a foreigner, interests of a foreigner, public interest and economic sabotage.
2. The Parliament should limit excessive and unrealistic Ministerial Powers of the Minister under the Bill, specifically the discretion to register or deregister organizations and approve funding without independent oversight.
3. Parliament should strike down provisions that are criminalizing fundraising activities by Ugandans living abroad in support of local investments as it is likely to affect the social economic development of the country.
4. Parliament should put in place mechanisms to enable Ministerial Coordination in implementing the Bill, strengthen or establish a central registry for information already shared among government agencies, since the information that is required in the registration processes are readily available to the NGO Bureau, URSB, Banks, Financial Intelligence Authority, Interpol and the Uganda Police, among others. In the alternative the IRCU and its partners recommend strengthening the Capacity of the Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) in respect to implementing the Bill, rather than creating another registration framework and a department of Peace and Security.
5. The IRCU and its partners recommend that Government should strengthen Private Public Partnerships instead of stifling the engagement and participation of NGOs, religious and faith-based organizations in development.
6. The IRCU and its partners recommend the creation of an alternative dispute resolution mechanism to expeditiously address matters arising from the actions and omissions of the Ministers before any court process, for example the creation of a functional inter-ministerial tribunal. This will address the issue of backlog in the Courts and guard against unnecessary delay of justice in business and related transactions.
7. The Punishments generally proposed in the Bill, should be aligned to Constitutional guarantees and sentencing Guidelines.
8. The law should not restrict the amount of funds to be received but instead strengthen the existing entities like the FIA, Bank of Uganda, NGO Bureau and the Deposit Protection Fund of Uganda, that require proof for the source of Funding and the purpose the Funds received.

Read more in the full statement below.

IRCU Press Statement on Protection of the Sovereignity Bill 2026