While launching the 2022 16 days of activism campaign in Parliament, the speaker Anita Among said government ministries, departments and agencies must popularize and enforce laws passed by parliament to fight GBV.

 In February this year, Parliament passed the Succession Amendment Bill 2021, which was assented to by the President and made law. 

The Executive Director of Uganda Women's Network (UWONET) and Women's Rights Activist, Rita Aciro Lakor, in an interview with the New Vision, said the law is quite progressive and provides for equality between men and women when it comes to succession. 

She said previously the succession act was gender blind, and very blind to women which gap was challenged in courts of law.   

“The old succession act only provided for men meaning women did not and cannot own property. There was no provision for an heiress but all that has been provided for in the new law.

 “As a women’s movement, we are happy with the strides made, it has been a long journey. 

“This, that we are celebrating today started by advocacy by the women’s rights movement. They successfully challenged it in the courts of law. This case was brought by Law and Advocacy for Women in Uganda vs Attorney General that nullified or considered the same provision in the same succession act cap 162,” said Lakor. 

Parliament also passed the Employment (Amendment) Bill that requires all employers to put in place measures that prevent sexual harassment at work. 

Much as there are some good laws protecting women and girls against GBV, some gaps remain, as other proposed laws are not good enough. 

“Some proposed laws have been revised and remain contentious. One of them is the Sexual Offences Bill 2019 which moved to criminalise marital rape to fight against GBV.” 

The former Kumi Woman MP, Monicah Amoding, tabled the Bill in Parliament in 2015, but contentious clauses such as that on marital rape was dropped. 

Amoding said the decision to drop the marital rape provision was due to the controversy that the provision generated among married couples and since it is already being catered for in the Marriage Bill. 

The bill also proposed that any person who forcefully performs a sexual act on another person, without consent or if the consent is obtained by force or by means of threats or intimidation of any kind or by fear of bodily harm, or by means of false representation as to the nature of the act commits a felony termed as rape and shall, on conviction, be liable to life imprisonment. 

The Bill faced resistance from the male MPs who shot it down, saying some of the provisions were controversial and untenable.

 Marital rape was a contentious subject when the Bill was first introduced with opponents of the proposal describing the proposal as intrusive and intended to regulate bedroom affairs between couples. 

Nonetheless, the Constitution of Uganda prohibits gender discrimination generally and enshrines the principle of equality before the law. 

But enforcement needs to be strengthened, Lucky Kobugabe, the Technical Manager of GBV Prevention Network under Raising Voices says. 

“Even at police stations when women and girls who are victims of GBV go to report they feel traumatized. They are asked how come they are reporting a case of GBV when they do not have physical marks of abuse, they are told they have nothing to show and make their case, even in courts. 

“There is a need for people in these spaces and in general to understand the different forms of GBV,” Kobugabe says. 

However, there is a need for budgeting to raise awareness and curb GBV. 

“A lot of money is needed to support women and not just profit-making entities in the country. The Money can be channelled towards creating awareness, providing psychosocial support, and enforcement of laws, it is possible,” Kobugabe says. 

The annual global campaign called the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence begins on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and lasts until December 10, Human Rights Day. 

The Center for Women's Global Leadership has continued to oversee the event every year since it was founded by activists at the first Women's Global Leadership Institute in 1991. 

People and groups across the world utilize this as an organizing tactic to demand the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls. 

Punishing offenders of GBV to deter its occurrence 

Only government can impose jail terms to punish those who perpetrate GBV, but there is a lot of corruption in the system, in implementing justice, kobugabe states. 

“Cases take long to be judged and offenders get away with the offence. 

“To change that practice we should borrow lessons from a country like Zambia that has a time limit within which GBV cases must be settled. It could be a month or two. 

“The responsibility of ensuring those who commit GBV offences are punished goes to government to show that GBV is unacceptable and offenders have to be jailed. 

“Community accountability is the other avenue. In some villages, those who perpetrate GBV, or rape are banished. Its 0ne way of stopping the practice,” she states. 

The sustainable interventions to end GBV 

There must be changes in social norms, Kobugabe says. 

“A lot of behaviours that normalise GBV has been okayed. We still have people who believe it’s okay to beat a wife and that the man is the head of the household. 

“This belief is unfortunately persistent and it doesn’t take one awareness campaign to end it. There must be a collective effort to change the harmful social norms and not have them replicated,” she says. 

“The police too must understand the different forms of GBV and handle victims with dignity.” 

Kobugabe says GBV has persisted because of the imbalance and abuse of power, between women and men. 

“There is a need to understand this to do away with the normalization of GBV. It will take time and years to change the mindset of an adult who believes GBV is normal but it is achievable. 

“Trainings and awareness campaigns can work; we have used the SASA programme a community-based methodology were the community is mobilised and led by a community leader and they take lessons on GBV. 

It’s a curriculum taught within a given timeframe. The lesson has an elaborate description of GBV, the use of power and the power imbalance that causes GBV and how GBV manifests, for people to analyse how they use power in communities and individually to rectify their behaviour that may be leading to GBV.” 

Kobugabe says from the group individuals will pick lessons. 

“Change starts with one person recognizing an evil and speaking about it. Another person will follow suit and then another. It may be slow but the change taken on an individual basis is deep-rooted. All of us have the power to make a change and end GBV,” she says.   

Where hope lies 

After the 16 days of activism being marked this year under the global theme “UNITE! Activism to end violence against women and girls” and customized themes such as reimagining a feminist future I would like to see a lot of support going to women movements, Kobugabe says. 

“They shoulder a lot of responsibility in the drive to end GBV against women and girls. 

“Women and girl citizens deserve protection of the government. There should be more trust and collaboration between the government, women movements, Institutions, NGOs and the public in creating a peaceful world for women and girls free of GBV. 

“The community of young people must also stop normalizing GBV both online and offline, and in all they do, to create a space for women to live with their full rights,” Kobugabe said.