ACHOLI/LANGO-Much as Sustainable Development Goal 5 aims at eliminating all forms of discrimination and violence against women and undertaking reforms that give women equal rights to economic resources and access to ownership of property, its implementation has remained at stake resulting in harsh sexual and gender-based violence in Northern Uganda.

Violence and the fear of violence is one of the many things that prevent women from taking their rightful place in the public sphere and they still only make up 22.8 % of parliamentarians globally. 

All over the world, women continue to face abuse, violence, discrimination, and sexual harassment when they are still teens.

This will not stop until the root cause of gender inequality and the power struggle between men and women, poor and rich, urban and rural, young and old, disabled or able-bodied is addressed.

Abraham Opito, project technical advisor steps for JLOS taking about the increased number of sexual and gender-based violence

The associate professor of social policy, Auma Okwany, who is also the course convener and overall project director STEPS for Justice Law and Order sector, said the world has made major commitments to gender equality and to ending violence against women, especially with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals but according to her, women still have a long way to go.

Auma said the horrifying statistics indicating that one in three women worldwide faces violence from an intimate partner is often quoted but changes very little from year to year while thousands of women die just because they are women.

“Despite the many campaigns, there is evidence that in many places; violence against women is getting worse. Global insecurity combined with an increase in right-wing populism and religious fundamentalists support an anti-women’s rights agenda where violence is legitimized," said Auma.

In 2021 (January-June) Uganda Refugee Response Plan (RRP) partners managed 2,541 new GBV incidents from 13 refugee hosting districts in Uganda, hence reaching 55% of the expected target of 4,350. At least 94% of the survivors were female while 4% was male. Rape was registered highest at 29%, followed by physical assault (26%).

Abraham Opito, the Project Technical Advisor Strengthening Training and Education Partnerships for Sexual and Gender-Based Violence for the Justice Law and Order Sector (STEPS for JLOS), said 60% of women in Lango and West Nile and 53% in Acholi have experienced physical violence during their lifetime and 22% of women experience various forms of sexual and cultural violence including rape, early marriage and intimate partner violence.

Opito said the STEPS for JLOS Project is currently responding to a critical competency gap and inadequate training opportunities for S&GBV prevention and response in Northern Uganda, a post-conflict context where high and increasing levels of poverty, political and economic marginalization have intensified S&GBV vulnerabilities. 

“The indicator on GBV awareness campaigns was behind schedule owing to COVID-19 containment measures, which included a complete ban on gatherings”. He added that the sector then focused on developing key sector documents, guidelines and tools on case management and GBV prevention activities.

He said violence against women is on the increase in Uganda despite the presence of laws and policies to protect victims and survivors. According to the Uganda Police Force's annual crime report, different crime and violence cases that were reported and investigated increased by 0.1% (from 195,931 to 196, 081cases) between 2020 and 2021

The Challenges

Sarah Awor Angweri, the female workers representative Lira City Council said the Challenges include inadequate resources (including for police), and lack of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) intervention to address deep trauma.

“Limited safe house spaces, unlit areas in settlements, late reporting of cases and power imbalances as well as negative cultural beliefs that make addressing GBV difficult”. She explained the worsening socio-economic situation as a result of COVID-19 exposes women to increased levels of GBV.

She revealed that there is a need to increase the number of GBV case workers and support to community structures adding that One-stop Centre should be established across health facilities to improve the clinical management of rape victims.

Moses Opio, the Kwania District Labor Officer said livelihood interventions and immediate material support remains a key to support survivors of GBV and those at high risk.

Opio said other priorities are the establishment of mobile courts, the refurbishment or construction of safe shelters, and support to Uganda police to ensure safety for women, improve investigation of cases and increase apprehension of perpetrators

“In the near future Uganda particularly Northern part of the country that has been one of the regions that suffers decades of war may continue suffering if less attention is paid to this rampant violation of human rights”. he emphasized.

Preliminary research

The Uganda 2016 demographic health survey (DHS) found that 58.4% of married women reported ever having experienced emotional, physical or sexual violence from a spouse, and 39.6% had experienced it within the past years in Northern Uganda.

Patrick Jimmy Okema, the North Kyoga region Police spokesperson said the recent crime report put the region number three in the entire country. He said that Amolatar district rank first is the region something he said need more intervention to reduced the Sexual and gender based violence.

“We are looking at these issues of Sexual and Gender based violence under transformative aspect where any police officer handling the victim of GBV should listen carefully and should not harass the victim”. Okema explained    

The Resident City Commissioner of Lira, Lawrence Egole, has cautioned the police against taking long when called to respond to GBV. According to Egole, violence against women and children are mostly perpetrated by men.

“We have so many silent issues within our villages and there is a need to address them so that the society can live a better life and health. Egole said

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is an important public health issue as it impacts negatively on health, economic and development outcomes. In conflict-affected northern Uganda, IPV prevalence is high and additional context-specific risk factors exist.

People residing in this region have been displaced, exposed to war and violence, and had livelihoods destroyed. There are few studies examining IPV in this setting. In this study, we aim to further understand the prevalence of IPV towards women and its associations in conflict-affected northern Uganda.

Brian George Kalinaki, the assistant directorate of Public Prosecutions Lira reveal that cases of sexual and gender-based violence are high in the region adding that recently the department has handled over 40 cases of S$GBV in a day.  

Intervention and policy

It has been the talk of policy makers, programmers and development partners for a while, at meetings, workshops and dialogues, “that Uganda makes good policies and laws but the problem is implementation.”

Against this background, local leaders in several districts have taken steps to address this challenge by developing district bye-laws and ordinances (regulations made by the local authority and applied only in their area) in order to change the narrative.

Kitgum district in Northern Uganda is one of them. Emerging from unspeakable legacies of armed conflict by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), residents of Kitgum district grappled with high incidences of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).

Ms. Sarah Labol, the District Gender Focal Point notes, “there has been a growing concern among stakeholders and communities of Kitgum over the increasing cases of GBV fuelled by the heavy consumption of crude alcohol and drug abuse.

Within a month the police report about sexual and gender-based violence indicates that over 50 cases were registered.

Recently, STEPS for Justice Law and Order sector has organized training that brings together different stakeholder from Lango and Acholi that include; Journalist, Police, Prison officer, community development officers, and Judiciary among other in the fight against Sexual and gender-based violence in Lango and Acholi sub-region