Can ordinary Ugandan women truly get justice?

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OPINION

By Elone Natumanya Ainebyoona

As Uganda joins the rest of the world to mark International Women’s Month under the global theme Rights. Justice. Action for All Women and Girls, it is worth asking a difficult question: Can ordinary Ugandan women truly access justice?

In Uganda, access to justice is a phrase one will most often encounter in discussions on legal and policy reform. However, for people to whom it matters most – women and girls — this usually feels difficult to access.

Ideally, access to justice in Uganda is delivered through the Justice, Law and Order Sector (JLOS), a government co-ordination framework established in 1999 to bring together institutions responsible for administering justice and maintaining law and order. The Constitution guarantees equality between men and women, while laws, such as the Domestic Violence Act, 2010, and its regulations, aim to ensure that these rights are protected and able to seek justice when their rights are violated.

Through JLOS, institutions such as the Judiciary, the Uganda Police Force, the Directorate of Public Prosecutions and the Uganda Prisons Service work collaboratively to strengthen the rule of law and improve access to justice. Over the years, the sector has introduced reforms aimed at reducing case backlogs, improving case management and expanding justice services across the country.

Innovative initiatives, such as Justice Centres Uganda, provide free legal aid, mediation services and legal awareness to vulnerable communities. Through outreach programmes, alternative dispute resolution mechanisms and digital tools, the centres are helping extend justice services to people who might otherwise be excluded.

These initiatives represent significant progress. However, the challenge remains ensuring that these reforms translate into meaningful access to justice for women at the community level.

Part of the difficulty lies in the historical foundations of the justice system itself. Much of it is built on structures inherited from colonial governance. These systems often prioritise complex procedures and technical legal language that can feel inaccessible to ordinary citizens.

By their very design, these institutions were distant from the everyday realities of ordinary people, particularly those who already faced barriers, such as lower levels of education, limited property ownership and reduced participation in decision-making spaces. The system was also largely patriarchal.

Many of these barriers persist today. For rural and less-educated women, understanding court processes can be particularly challenging. The long distances to courts and requirements for physical appearances further complicate matters, especially for those who must balance childcare, farming and other activities.

These challenges help explain why many cases of gender-based violence never reach formal courts. Justice sector officials have noted that roughly 5% of such cases are formally prosecuted.

Economic barriers must also be addressed. Transport costs, medical examination fees, court attendance and legal representation can be prohibitive for women living in poverty. Even where legal aid services exist, awareness and accessibility remain uneven.

Before colonial rule, Ugandan communities had their own systems of dispute resolution led by clan leaders, elders and community authorities. However, customary systems can also reinforce patriarchal norms that disadvantage women, particularly in cases involving inheritance, property rights or domestic violence.

Decolonising women’s access to justice does not mean rejecting formal institutions. Rather, it means reimagining them so that they reflect the realities, voices and experiences of the communities they serve. There has to be continuous gender sensitivity and survivor-centred training for police officers, prosecutors and magistrates.

The solution, therefore, is not to discard customary mechanisms entirely but to transform and harmonise them with constitutional principles of gender equality.

One practical way to improve accessibility is to decentralise justice services. Expanding mobile court services, strengthening community paralegal programmes and empowering local council courts can help reduce the distance between citizens and justice institutions.

Improving women’s access to justice also requires expanding legal literacy. Many women remain unaware of their rights. Legal education through local languages, community radio, grassroots dialogues and paralegal programmes can help bridge this gap.

Beyond institutional reforms, there is also a need to confront the social norms that silence women and discourage reporting. Changing these attitudes requires sustained community engagement and leadership from cultural, religious and political institutions. Justice reform must go hand in hand with broader social transformation.

When every woman and girl can pursue justice without fear, financial hardship or social stigma, the promise of equality before the law will move closer to reality. Building such a justice system is essential for Uganda’s social progress, economic development and national stability.

Justice must not feel foreign to the people it is meant to protect. It must not remain confined to courtrooms in urban centres. It must reach every district, every village and every household.

The writer is the founder of the Usisi Amandla Fellowship and a women’s public policy fellowship