I doubt the Movement is serious about women’s rights

Feb 24, 2006

SIR – Moses Byaruhanga (Special Presidential Assistant on Political

SIR – Moses Byaruhanga (Special Presidential Assistant on Political Affairs) recently claimed that it is the Movement government that championed women rights in Uganda.

It is not disputed that 50 women participated in the Constituency Assembly and also that many women are represented in different political and other positions in Uganda at different levels.

However, what is wrong is for Byaruhanga to claim that it is Museveni who championed women rights in Uganda.

Most of those women rights we see in the Constitution of Uganda are derived from the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Uganda signed this treaty on July 30, 1980 (almost six years before Museveni came to power) and ratified it on August 21, 1985 (a few months before Museveni came to power) without even a single reservation.

Byaruhanga should know that under international law, when a country ratifies an international treaty, it has a duty to make sure that, among other things, all its domestic laws are not in conflict with the obligations it has undertaken under an international treaty.

This means such a country has to amend those domestic pieces of legislation that are in conflict with the international treaty and also to ensure that new laws (including the Constitution) that are enacted are in line with the treaty.

When women rights were included in the Constitution and when women were represented at different political and other levels, the Government was not doing women a favor but implementing the international obligations that preceded the Museveni Government. Jamil Mujuzi South Africa

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