UWOPA Tasks Government To Bring Back Marriage and Divorce Bill

By our reporter

Female members of Parliament under their umbrella body of Uganda Women Parliamentary Association are demanding government to stop playing ping-pong with the marriage and divorce bill and bring it back on the floor of Parliament.

They claim that this embattled bill is the only solution to reduce domestic and Gender based violence.As the world marks the 16 days of Gender based activism which will climax on 10th December

The mitooma district woman mp Jovah Kamateeka called upon Ugandans to embrace the bill which has been in Parliament for over forty years but because of the contradictions which attracted huge criticism of the legislation have been sieved out and others amended starting from the title Marriage and divorce bill which was changed to Marriage bill. She also discouraged stereotypes associated with this bill ,where many think that the bill only benefits women yet all family members are safeguarded.

Lawmakers called upon the ministry of gender, health, judiciary and the police to allocate specific funds for gender based violence interventions and design GBV- related strategies and programs

Female legislators have also embarked on a campaign to compel government provide emergency sanitary towels to school going children, to reduce on the number of girls dropping out school due to lack of sanitary pads. But Kamateka reminded parents to take charge of buying pads for their daughters

According to Uganda Demographic survey report of 2016 , violence against women and girls remains high in Uganda despite the progressive legal regime in Uganda where by more than one in 5 women aged between 15-19 experience sexual violence compared to 8% of men while 56% of ever -married women and 44% of ever married men have experienced spousal violence. Uganda is paying heavily to GBV consequences to the tune of 77.5 billion shillings annually in expenses related to GBV according to CEDOVIP 2012 report