SEXUAL GENDER BASED VIOLANCE A CANCER TO UGANDA

By Rose Kasigwa

Uganda Human Rights Commission and other partners in the fight against the vice of Sexual Gender Based Violence (SGVB) have noted with concern the increase of the vice which they demand to be urgently addressed.

Dr Miria Matembe the  former state  minister for Ethics and Integrity  who is  also an advocate of Women Rights in Uganda said that women and girls continue to be violated and she attributed it  to social norms ,culture , and misinterpretation  and mis application of religious principles which the perpetrators are using to justify their violations.

Speaking during a meeting organized by Uganda Human rights commission at Sheraton Kampala hotel with a theme: “SUSTAINING SGBV PREVENTION AND RESPONSE: IN UGANDA, JOINT EFFORTS, AND EXISTING GAPS”, Matembe said that un less communities change their mindset and put to a stop to justifying violence against women as an act accepted by culture, norns and religious principles the challenges will continue.

Matembe said that child marriage is a new form of gender violence which escalated during the Covid 19 lockdown where parents started marrying off their young girls as early as 13 years for fear that they were going to be impregnated. Matembe said that she continues to receive cases of child marriages however, she is facing huddles while trying to address them due to corruption at various levels.

Matembe said that corruption starts right away the case is reported at the grass roots it continues at police and it forms a new turn in courts of law at magistrate’s level.  Matembe said “The laws are there but they are not enforced and mechanism for enforcing and the funding  to fight the vice is not done”.

Matembe called upon government and authorities at all levels to address corruption if what she calls a monster causing women and girls untold suffering  is to be addressed.

The Chairperson of Equal Opportunities Commission, Safia Nalule Juuko said that much as government has made strides in addressing gender based violence, a lot more need to be done for an impact to be felt. She credited government and its partners for putting laws in place, shelters for the victims of violence however, she said that  “We have progressive laws which have remained in the law books due to budget constraints.  We have Shelters which are still very few government has to put in place a provision in a law requiring gender equity, planning and budgeting to help the issue of gender based violence to be planned and implemented”.

Nalule also explained how women and girls with disabilities go through challenges as they report cases of sexual violence especially at grassroots and at police, she said they are mocked and frustrated that they are wasting their time attributing it to their disabilities. Nalule said “ If it’s a girl with disabilities may be she is blind, deaf, she cannot even know that someone is undressing her for rape she cannot even make an alarm”

 Nalule strongly condemn the act emphasizing that having sex with  women and girls with disabilities   without their consent is not a favor as many claim  saying that they too have equal rights like the rest of the citizens and they must be  protected by ensuring that perpetrators are brought to book.

The Ambassador of Sweden in Uganda, Maria Hakansson said her country, Australia is passionate about promoting justice and inclusive society saying that Uganda as a country has   good laws and policies to help   access justice   and her country continues funding the promotion of justice through supporting institutions with specialized gender based violence special courts among others. She however, pointed out challenges including corruption which she said impedes women from depositing sex claims to authorities, victims failing to testify because they are not protected among other challenges which need to be addressed.

The Executive Director of Civil Society Budget Advocacy group (CSBAG) Julius Mukunda said  for government and development partners  to succeed in fighting the vice of  Sexual gender based violence, government needs to increase the budget for implementation.

Mukunda said that government and its partners have done a tremendous job by putting in place laws and policies to address Gender based violence adding that other countries are copying them and are applying them and succeeding however, Uganda is failing due to shortage of funds for implementations.

Mukunda said that the current country budget allocation for access to   justice in general is shillings 5.2 billion, 159 billion shillings for police crime prevention and investigation and Equal Opportunities Commission budget  is Shs 14 billion shillings which he says is meager.

Mukunda has advised government to invest more funding in crucial areas including changing mind set of communities, economic empowerment of women and making sure that girls go to school and complete their studies.