The Hon. Principal Judge Decries Gender Based Violence
The\r\nHon. Principal Judge, Hon. Justice Yorokamu Bamwine decried the increasing\r\nsexual and gender-based violence in the country and called on all institutions\r\nof the Justice Law and Order sector to fight the vice in the society. The Hon.\r\nPrincipal Judge also urged the Judicial Officers to embrace judicial activism\r\nin order to witness a faster disposal of cases that will lead to significant\r\nreduction in case backlog especially in sexual gender based violence.
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Hon.\r\nJustice Bamwine deplored the increasing sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV)\r\nin many parts of the country and; call upon judicial officers to explore\r\navenues of arbitrating such cases as fast as possible in their respective\r\ncourts.
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Lamenting\r\nthe rampant sexual violence against women in the Ugandan society, Hon. Justice Bamwine\r\nsaid that such acts diminish dignity of women and eventually spoils the entire\r\nsociety. He called upon everyone including the media to fight the immorality. He\r\nalso condemned sexual harassment that is rampant in all societies including the\r\nJudiciary. He hailed the media for what he described as a wonderful job in a\r\nexposing the rampant iniquities in many parts of the country including remote\r\nones.
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Hon.\r\nJustice Bamwine was on launching a "training of trainers manual” produced by\r\nFUDA (women’s lawyers’ organization) at PROTEA Hotel in Kampala. He was also\r\nclosing a-two-day ‘colloquium sexual gender-based violence’ workshop organized\r\nby FIDA for judicial officers in collaboration with the Judicial Studies\r\nInstitute (JSI).
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The\r\nprincipal Judge hoped that the workshop would enable the Judicial Officers to\r\ncreate a change for them when handling cases of sexual and gender-based\r\nviolence in their court.
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The\r\nworkshop explored an overview of SGBV cases and statics in the country, court\r\npractices in relation to the law and SGBV. It also considered policy dimensions\r\nin relation to gender-based violence, how the structure was positioned to\r\naddress the issues concerning such cases and the gender, human rights and\r\ncustoms and also the challenges.
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The\r\nparticipants also considered the challenges the different structures and\r\ninstitutions faced while handling the gender-based cases which included lack of\r\nguidelines in Uganda on how such case should be managed. Absence of logistics\r\nto investigate and manage those cases in Uganda Police, corruption, negative\r\ncultural attitudes like patriarchy were also identified as some of the\r\nsignificant challenges in dealing with such cases.
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The\r\nlong time taken to prosecute SGBV cases and the non-consideration of the\r\npsychosocial impact in the management of SGBV cases were also other challenges\r\nidentified.
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Several\r\nrecommendations were advanced including strategic litigations on issues of\r\ngender-based issues for inaction in light of the amnesty law, the Judiciary to\r\ncome up with possible administrative solutions to fast truck SGBV cases,\r\ntraining of judicial officers dealing with SGBV cases; the need for development\r\nof guidelines and child-friendly procedures for children witnesses and\r\nvictims of sexual gender-based violence.
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Among\r\nthe presenters was Dr Sylvester Onzivua, head of forensic department at Mulago\r\nReferral Hospital, Hon. Justice Eva Luswata of the High Court and Susan\r\nOkalany, Head of Gender in DPP’s chambers.
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Posted 22nd, December 2014
