WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY NEWS archive: UGANDA
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2006

UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Phoebe Asiyo pushes for women's participation
in the Northern Uganda peace talks
November 1, 2006 – (UNIFEM) The coalition is calling for women's effective participation in the ongoing peace talks in Juba between the Government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army. It is also demanding that specific women's rights issues be addressed, especially the protection of women against gender-based violence, property rights for displaced women, and women's participation in decision-making and transitional justice.

Norway and Sweden support UNIFEM urgent actions for women's rights in East Africa
November 1, 2006 - (UNIFEM) UNIFEM's interventions on women's rights and gender equality in Somalia and Uganda received a major boost this week with financial assistance from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the Government of Norway.

Don't let Uganda's war criminals off the hook
October 6, 2006 – (Christian Science Monitor) "We will not negotiate with terrorists." The logic of this stance is simple: accede to demands at the barrel of a gun and find more guns pointed at you. Unfortunately, that lesson appears lost on many in Uganda, where the brutal leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) may soon gain immunity from the International Criminal Court (ICC) by threatening violence against civilians.

Uganda's LRA rebel boss 'emerges'
September 17, 2006 – (BBC) Uganda's rebel chief is said to have arrived at a camp in Sudan, meeting a condition in a truce which may lead to an end to conflict in northern Uganda. Joseph Kony and members of his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) were given three weeks to reach the meeting place. One of the world's most wanted men, Mr Kony has been indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

UN chief talks with LRA deputy Otti
Septmber 10, 2006 – (The New Vision) The United Nations humanitarian chief yesterday talked to the LRA deputy, Vincent Otti, urging him to release all the women and children as they proceed with the peace talks with the government.

U.N. ready for return of Ugandan rebel captives
August 28, 2006 – (Reuters) The United Nations and aid workers prepared on Monday to receive hundreds of children who are supposed to be freed under a landmark truce between Uganda's government and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. Under the deal agreed on Saturday at peace talks in southern Sudan, the guerrillas -- and their ranks of abducted child soldiers, porters and sex slaves -- have three weeks to assemble at two south Sudan camps while negotiations continue.

HIV-Positive Women Talk It Over in 'Mama's Club'
July 23, 2004 - (WomensEnews) A group of HIV-positive mothers in Uganda have banded together to form the "Mama's Club." Twice a month they share medical and legal information, but perhaps most important, they remember they are not alone.

Uganda: Women Missing in Conflict Resolution
July 6, 2006 - (The Monitor) Despite successful efforts to bring peace to conflict areas, women have not been active participants in the process, a report by the International Crisis Group indicates. ICG is a Brussels-based non-governmental organisation working towards preventing and resolving conflict worldwide.The report says women are often times excluded from peace agreements and conflict resolution processes and under-represented in the security sector as a whole.

A Ugandan Lawyer's Passage From Skeptical Little Girl to 'Pleader for Women'
June 16, 2006 – (The Washington Post) By the time she was 7, Miria Matembe was already aware of the unfairness women and girls endured in Uganda. Her father ran a small kiosk in Mbarara, a trading center in western Uganda, where he sold banana and meat cakes, beans and ground nuts. Her mother stayed home to look after the couple's nine children and raise produce in a small garden for the family. But Matembe's father never gave his wife credit for her hard work.

Opposition slams big Cabinet
June 2, 2006 – (The New Vision) Opposition politicians have criticised President Yoweri Museveni’s new cabinet, saying it is too big and a waste of taxpayers’ money. In separate interviews carried out yesterday, they also said the ministers should have been given posts in line with their professions. The women complained that they had been marginalised in the new cabinet.

Soldier Verdict Spotlights Rape in Ugandan Camps
May 29, 2006 – (WeNews) Like most of the female residents of Awere Internally Displaced Persons camp in northern Uganda, the girls rose at dawn that morning in 2002. They set out on foot, with their mother, to harvest crops several kilometers away.

Gulu Girls Left Out Of Education
May 15, 2006 - (New Vision) Many IDPs give away their daughters in marriage even when they are under 18 years

HIV High in Pader Camps
April 25, 2006 -(AllAfrica) PADER district chairman Yakobo Komakech has decried the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS among displaced persons in camps.

UGANDA: Millions of women and children living rough
March 8, 2006 -(IRIN) Ugandan authorities should prioritise the needs of some 3 million women and 3.5 million children living in the most disadvantaged communities, including camps for internally displaced people in the war-torn northern region, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said.

Uganda's Pro-Women Program Produces a Dissident
March 13, 2006 -(WOMENSENEWS) Ugandans voted last month for 69 special female members of parliament as part of the country's lauded gender affirmative-action program. But one prominent female politician says the 10-year-old system has failed to deliver legal gains for women.

2005

The year 2005 and its women achievers
December 24, 2005 - (The Daily Monitor) Women seem to have decided to jump all hurdles and reach out for those positions that would have otherwise been dominated by men.

Ugandan police undergo special training on eliminating violence against women
November 30, 2005 - (UNHCR) As a Ugandan police detective, Gladys Friday has taken reports of "painful cases of violence" against women almost every day, but she was never sure how best to help the victims. Now, after undergoing special training sponsored by the UN refugee agency to encourage Uganda's police to eliminate violence against women, Detective Friday says: "I feel I am together with the women and girls in fighting violence against them. I will no longer disregard them as refugees but I will fight to protect them. I am now closer [to refugee women] and will better handle cases of sexual and gender-based violence."

Africa's peace seekers: Petronille Vaweka
September 14, 2005 - (The Christian Science Monitor) Out of the mist of a rural African morning, a great lion springs into the path of a young woman walking to work in the fields.

Africa’s Peace Seekers: Betty Bigombe
September 13, 2005 – (Christian Science Monitor Online) Betty Bigombe spends her days talking to rebels and Army officers in Uganda's bush country. She is one of Africa's peace seekers - individuals willing to leave loved ones behind, shrug off personal threats, and even spend significant amounts of their own money to end some of the continent's most intractable conflicts.

UGANDA: Uneven Progress on Gender Equality
September 3, 2005 - (IPS) Uganda has been widely praised for having a constitution that reflects gender concerns. The 10-year-old document commits the country to affirmative action in the workplace, freedom from sexual discrimination and economic rights for women

Uganda: Women run projects to heal and bring hope
July 31, 2005 - (AI) Over 600,000 women in conflict-torn Northern Uganda have lived with the traumas associated with war for nineteen years. The overcrowded camps have been home to the population for just as long. For women and girls in this region riddled with conflict, violence has become part of every day life.

Violence against women in Northern Uganda
July 17, 2005 - (AI) "When we were given to our husbands we were expected to have sex with them. I was only 10 years old when I was handed over. For days after, I was sexually abused. The first time I felt a lot of pain because he was too big. He told me he was nearly forty years old. I felt so bad because I was still young, but I had to accept to sleep with him. I was afraid that if I refused he would carry out his threat to kill me. I had no love for that man."

Fear, graft and silence shroud Uganda sex attacks
June 23, 2005 - (Reuters) When the young Ugandan realised the woman he had raped in the dark of the refugee camp was his mother, he hung himself from a beam in their hut.

Rape common in north uganda refugee camp - unicef
June 15, 2005 - (Reuters) Rape, sexual attacks and child abuse are common in northern Uganda's biggest refugee camp, where tens of thousands of people shelter from 19 years of war, the United Nations children's agency said on Wednesday.

The hidden costs of the DRB
June 7, 2005 - (Human Rights Watch) President Yoweri Museveni recently said the Domestic Relations Bill, which would bolster women's rights in the family and criminalize marital rape, is "not urgently needed." But what could be more urgent than stopping the brutal violence that puts women and girls at risk of HIV/AIDS, harms economic development, and violates fundamental human rights?

Uganda Leads in Growth, Gender Issues - WB Report
May 23, 2005 - (The Monitor) A new World Bank Group (WBG) study cites Uganda as a leader in Sub-Saharan Africa in addressing critical linkages between economic growth and gender issues. But it suggests Uganda can grow faster by unleashing the economic power of women through speeding up the current process of removing barriers to business.

Charlotte, Grace, Janet and Caroline Come Home
May 8, 2005 - (NYT) The rebels have ruined northern Uganda. No one wanted to look out the car window on the three-hour journey northwest from Lira to Gulu near the Sudanese border. Charlotte Awino leaned her cheek on the glass and closed her eyes against the abandoned homesteads and fallow farmland that once provided most of the country's cassava, millet and beans. After 18 years of civil war, more than 1.5 million inhabitants have fled to plastic-sheeted internment camps, preferring to risk slow death by disease and malnutrition rather than to wake in their beds one night to discover the rebels have arrived.

Uganda: Gov't Soldiers Charged With Rape of IDPs
April 22, 2005 - (IRIN) Three Ugandan soldiers have been arrested in connection with the rape of two internally displaced persons (IDPs), including a 12-year-old girl, in the war-torn northern district of Kitgum, an army spokesman told IRIN on Thursday.

Ten Years After Beijing
March 12, 2005 - (The Monitor - Kampala) By Danson KahyanaThe United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW or Beijing) held in Beijing, China, September 4-15, 1995, was the largest and most influential of all the World Conferences on Women. Over 17,000 registrants, including 5,000 delegates from 189 UN member states, 4,000 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and more than 3,200 media representatives attended to discuss a broad range of issues concerning women.

2004

Uganda: Spare the Women And Children, UN Agency Urges
December 10, 2004 - (IRIN) Uganda's government must do what it can to protect children and women from violence, while the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) must immediately and unconditionally stop abducting, killing and exploiting Uganda's children, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.

Women Group Accuses UPDF of War Crimes
November 24, 2004 - (New Vision - Kampala) An international women's group has accused the UPDF and Karimojong warriors of committing crimes in the war-ravaged north. The Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice (WIGJ), which has been monitoring the International Criminal Court (ICC) activities in northern Uganda, said testimonies had shown that it was not only the Lord's resistance army (LRA) rebels committing crimes in the area.

Women' s Initiatives for Gender Justice Mission to Northern Uganda
November 23, 2004 (Press release delivered at press conference, Kampala, in collaboration with Isis-WICCE and Ugandan Women Activists) A five member International Team comprising of Sara Sharratt (Costa Rica), Gabriella Mischkowski (Germany), Betty Murungi (Kenya), Brigid Inder (Executive Director, New Zealand) and Vahida Nainar (Chairperson, India), all members of The Hague based international women’s human rights organization, Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice (WIGJ) along with three members of the Kampala based women’s organization, Isis-WICCE including Ruth Ochieng (Executive Director), Jessica Nkuuhe and Elizabeth Ngororano, and accompanied by Veronica Bichetero, Commissioner at the Uganda Human Rights Commission visited the conflict ridden region of Northern Uganda. The all-women team visited the districts of Gulu, Kitgum, Lira and Soroti for the past seven days.

UGANDAN WOMAN FOR UN
October 26, 2004 - (New Vision - Kampala) A Ugandan woman has been appointed United Nations special advisor to the Secretary General on gender issues and advancement of women. Rachael Mayanja will assume her new office in New York next month.

HIV/AIDS rate soars in war-torn northern Uganda
September 27,2 004 - (Reuters) HIV/AIDS rates in northern Uganda are nearly twice as high as the rest of the country because of an 18-year war with the brutal Lord's Resistance Army rebel group, an aid agency said on Monday.

A TALE OF UGANDA PEOPLES DEFENCE FORCES’ (UPDF) CONGOLESE WOMEN
August 22, 2004 - (The Monitor) In 2001, as hundreds of Uganda Peoples Defence Forces trekked back home, after a controversial stay in the DR Congo, they were followed by hundreds of Congolese women, some with babies clinging on their backs, some pregnant.

WOMEN'S COMMISSION FOR REFUGEE WOMEN AND CHILDREN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS PROJECT(CAP) UPDATE
July 2004 - (Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children) The Children and Adolescents Project released its newest report No Safe Place to Call Home: Child and Adolescent Night Commuters in Northern Uganda. The report examines how young people in the region face increased risk of gender-based violence, recruitment into government military forces and other human rights abuses due to the continued lack of security and protection.

THE NEW FACE OF AIDS IN UGANDA
July 30, 2004 - (IPS) They meet every week at a small, government-funded health clinic in Kawempe, the poorest and most crowded suburb of the Ugandan capital. They vary in age, but nearly all are married or widowed. Most contracted HIV from a husband or long-term partner. They are members of the Kawempe Positive Women’s Union (KPWU).

ICC OPENS WAR CRIMES PROBE IN NORTHERN UGANDA
July 29, 2004 - (UN Wire) Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court today opened an investigation into war crimes in northern Uganda, where government forces have been battling an 18-year rebellion by the shadowy Lord's Resistance Army.

WOMEN FOR GENDER ROADMAP
July 28, 2004 - (The Monitor) Ms ZamZam Nagujja has appealed to women activists to lobby government to include women issues in the political road map. Nagujja is the deputy Director of legal Affairs at the Movement Secretariat.

STELLA AND HELLEN - FACES OF UGANDA'S FORGOTTEN TRAGEDY
July 26, 2004 - (Salvation Army) Captain Mike McKee, Field Operations Officer for The Salvation Army's International Emergency Services team, visited Uganda, assessing how The Salvation Army can provide desperately-needed relief to some of the victims of the African country's 'forgotten' disaster. He reports here on some of the people he met whose situations represent those faced by well over a million other.

U.N. URGES BETTER SERVICES FOR UGANDA'S WAR-AFFECTED CHILDREN
July 16, 2004 - (UN WIRE) UNICEF this week called for universal access to basic services for children affected by HIV/AIDS in northern and eastern Uganda, areas suffering from conflict, and for a priority to be placed on getting antiretroviral drugs to single parents with HIV whose spouses had died of AIDS.

PARLIAMENT DECRIES SITUATION IN TROUBLED NORTH
July 7, 2004 - (IRIN) Some Ugandan parliamentarians broke down in tears last week as they watched video footage of the situation in the troubled northern region.

OVER 8,000 UGANDAN CHILDREN ABDUCTED IN LAST 12 MONTHS: REPORT
June 26, 2004 - (Xinhua via COMTEX) A committee from the Ugandan parliament has said that in the last 12 months alone, it is estimated that over 8,000 children have been abducted owing to the spread of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel activity.

'NIGHT COMMUTER' SITUATION DETERIORATES IN WAR-TORN NORTHERN UGANDA
June 17, 2004 – (TearFund) Record numbers of children in the Gulu district of Northern Uganda are fleeing their homes each night in fear of abduction and death as the country's 18-year conflict worsens, reports Noah's Ark, a Tearfund partner providing shelter and care for the children.

SWEDEN GIVES $1 MILLION TO UGANDAN WOMEN, CHILDREN
June 14, 2004 – (UN Wire) The Swedish government has donated $1 million to UNICEF's efforts to help vulnerable children and women in northern and eastern Uganda, about a million of whom have been driven from their homes by fighting during the 18-year rebellion by the Lord's Resistance Army.

GOV'T, PARTIES FORUM UPHOLDS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
June 12, 2004 – (New Vision) The Government and political parties consultative forum has recommended that affirmative action for women and the disabled be retained.

NO KIDS FOR FEMALE SOLDIERS
April 8, 2004 – (The Monitor) Female soldiers who get pregnant within four years of joining the force will have to quit, MPs on the defence committee argued yesterday.

UGANDA'S FIRST POLICE WOMEN TELLS HER STORY
April 6, 2004 – (New Vision) Dark skinned men in maroon uniform brandishing guns, pick up trucks and a big house welcome you to the quiet place surrounded by huge mango trees. In the office, a dark-skinned bespectacled lady seems busy, she shuffles through files while speaking on phone.

DOWRIES BLAMED FOR UGANDAN WIFE BEATINGS
March 25, 2004 – (BBC) The Ugandan practice of wedding dowries - known as the bride price - is to blame for much of the country's domestic violence, experts say.

UGANDA: AN EQUAL HEARING FOR WOMEN IN DIVORCE CASES
March 14, 2004 – (IPS) The ideal of gender equality in Uganda was brought closer to realisation recently with a Constitutional Court ruling on the country's Divorce Act.

GIRLS, WOMEN SEXUALLY ASSAULTED IN IDP CAMPS
February 24, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) That night, he called me to him. I went obediently expecting him to ask me to do something for him like to take some drinking water.

NORTH, EAST GET SH140M BURSARIES
February 24, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) The Prince Kimbugwe Foundation has given 300 bursaries to girls from the war-torn sub-regions of Acholi, Lango and Teso.

ARMY TO REGULATE PREGNANCY
February 23, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) The Ministry of Defence is seeking to regulate pregnancy timing for Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) cadets.

WOMEN GET SH19.5B
February 23, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) Women in 10 districts have received loans of more than sh19.5b from Feed the Children Uganda.

BRIDE PRICE WEAKENS WOMEN
February 23, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) Esther Wamara was employed with the judiciary in Rukungiri district until she got married. Her husband stopped her from working and sent her to stay in their village, where she tilled the land and looked after children. With time, her husband who was working in Kampala, went home less often.

WOMEN DECRY DOWRY
February 21, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) Women activists have launched a campaign against the payment of bride price.

MP MOOTS LAW TO BAN FMG
February 21, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) Mwenge South MP Dora Byamukama has mooted the enactment of a law to ban Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

A PRICE ABOVE RUBIES
February 18, 2004 – (IPS News) ”We are going to shout about bride price across Africa and we are going to say 'no' to the sale of women,” exclaimed Atuki Turner to a crowded hall at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

NEW DIRECTION IN UGANDA'S OLD WAR
February 16, 2004 – (Washington Post Foreign Service) The despondent-looking man with the smudged glasses moved gingerly through this squalid camp, home to 20,000 people and not a single health center.

'PARTY POLITICS UNDERMINE WOMEN'
February 11, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) Women Parliamentarians have said party systems in African countries have undermined effective participation of women in politics.

UGANDA: TAPPING THE KNOWLEDGE OF AFRICAN WOMEN
February 2004 – (Pambazuka E-News Letter Issue # 144) Isis-WICCE relocated to Kampala, Uganda at the end of 1993 with an objective of tapping African women's ideas, views and problems and sharing the information with women at the international level. Since the move to Kampala, Isis-WICCE started National-and regional level programmes to facilitate the flow of information from Uganda to other parts of Africa and the rest of the world, and to contribute towards the strengthening of the Uganda and African women's movement. Isis-WICCE exists to promote Justice, and empowerment of women globally through documenting violations of women's rights and facilitating the exchange of information and skills, to strengthen women's capacities, potential, and visibility.

FIRST INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT CASE TARGETS UGANDA'S REBELS
January 30, 2004 – (UN Wire) The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court announced yesterday the tribunal's first case would target Ugandan rebel leaders who have kidnapped thousands of children to serve as soldiers or sex slaves.

AFRICA: ABDUCTION OF WOMEN, CHILDREN GROWS IN WAR ZONES, U.N. SAYS
January 29, 2004 – (GlobalInfo) The abduction of women and children in military conflicts in Africa is on the rise, according to a U.N. report released Thursday, the same day an international court said it will pursue Ugandan rebels for war crimes against the two vulnerable groups.

A DOG'S LIFE FOR MOTHERS IN GULU PROTECTED CAMPS
January 27, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) A pregnant woman must visit a maternity facility for medical check-ups at least three times in her nine months of pregnancy, and one or two times after delivery. Not so for the woman in the congested displaced people's camp in northern Uganda with few health centres nearby.

SEXUAL VIOLENCE REPORTEDLY RISING IN THE NORTH
January 27, 2004 – (IRIN) Many women and girls amongst the thousands of people in the north who flee their homes each night to seek shelter in town centres fearing attacks and abduction by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels are sexually abused, an advocacy group has reported.

THOUSANDS OF “NIGHT COMMUTERS” FLEE TO TOWN CENTERS AS WAR RAGES IN NORTHERN UGANDA; SEXUAL VIOLENCE INCREASES
January 22, 2004 – (Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children) At least 50,000 people — the majority of them children and adolescents — flee their homes nightly as the 18-year war in northern Uganda has worsened. Fearing increased attacks and abduction by the rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), these civilians escape to the relative safety of town centers each night. Many of the girls and women among them are sexually abused and harassed along the way, as well as in the areas where they sleep, which the Ugandan government does not protect.

DISABLED WOMEN SUFFER SEXUAL ABUSE IN SILENCE
January 20, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) It is a sunny day. Loice Alapo, 22, sits under a big mango tree, her crippled legs stretched out infront of her at Lwala Hospital in Kaberamaido. Her hands support her chin as she stares in space.

UGANDA WOMEN MPS PLACED 25TH
January 13, 2004 – (New Vision - Kampala) CERTAINLY, it is not yet time for "uhuru" for Ugandan women and they cannot cry foul either. An international ranking of women in national parliaments has placed Uganda in the 25th slot among 181 countries.

2003

LRA WAR BREAKING WOMEN'S BACKS
December 16, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) It is the third day of a peace building and conflict management workshop at Gulu teacher's centre. Most of the participants are women who belong to the Grassroots Women for Development (GWARD), an NGO in Gulu. Others are members of the Uganda Media Women's Association (UMWA).

AGENCIES CONDEMN RIGHTS ABUSES IN REFUGEE CAMPS
December 11, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) RELIEF agencies in settlement camps for Sudanese refugees in West Nile have decried the high rate of human rights abuses in the camps.

'WOMEN GET RAW DEAL IN POLITICS'
December 10, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) WOMEN still get a raw deal in politics despite the adoption of affirmative action, a report by the British Council has revealed.

'WATER CONDEMNS WOMEN TO POVERTY'
December 10, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) WOMEN'S traditional role as water collectors has confined them to perpetual poverty, the head of the water sector liaison division, Richard Cong, has said.

ABDUCTED GIRLS ARE NOT REBEL WIVES'
December 9, 2003 – (The Monitor - Kampala) The state minister for Defence has ordered the army to stop referring to rescued girls as former wives of rebel commanders.

NGO TO REDUCE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
December 9, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) They talk on top of their voices attracting more people. Some talk while seated, others stand up with no smile at all to stress a point.

SABINY NOW CIRCUMCISE MARRIED WOMEN
December 9, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) WHILE the commitment by the anti-Female Genital Circumcision (FGC) activists to eliminate the practice among the Sabiny of Kapchorwa district by 2006 still stands, meeting the target is becoming elusive with the new developments in the Sabiny society.

CENTER FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE PREVENTION MARKS 16 DAYS OF ACTIVISM AGAINST GENDER BASED VIOLENCE, NOVEMBER 25 - DECEMBER 10, 2003
December 2003 – (WOUGNET Update Newsletter - December 2003) The Center for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP) is a registered non governmental organization that is working with the grassroots community in Kawempe to address the issue of domestic violence by influencing change in attitude and behaviors that perpetuate violence against women.

LOOK MARITAL RAPE IN THE FACE, SEE AIDS
December 3, 2003 – (The Monitor Opinion - Kampala) As we celebrate World Aids Day (December 1), I do not want us to lose sight of the fact that this day falls within the 16 days of activism against violence upon women. Indeed, I wish we had used the day to reflect on the connection between violence against women and the HIV/Aids pandemic.

AIDS: NEW FRICTIONS EMERGE OVER VIRGIN BRIDES
December 1, 2003 – (African Church Information Service) The controversial issue of virginity is again under debate in Uganda.

ISIS-WICCE WINS GENDER AND ICT AWARD
November 2003 – (Isis-WICCE) An international Non-Governmental Organisation, Isis-Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE), has won the Gender and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Award for its initiative on “Documenting Experiences of Women in Situations of Armed Conflict in Uganda”.

UGANDAN ARMY RESCUES OVER 60 CHILDREN FROM REBELS
November 27, 2003 – (Deutsche Presse Agentur) Ugandan government forces have rescued 61 children from Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas during a series of battles over the past 3 days in the north of the country, an army spokesman from the region said Thursday.

FIDA LAUDS CABINET ON DOMESTIC BILL
November 24, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) FIDA-Uganda, a legal support network for women, has commended Cabinet on its recent approval of the Domestic Relations Bill.

UGANDA WOMEN'S NETWORK LAUNCHES A FAIR FAMILY LAW PRESS KIT
November 18, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) Uganda Women's Network (UWONET) an advocacy and lobbying coalition of national women's NGOs, has launched a fair family law press kit.

WOMEN'S GROUPS HAIL APPROVAL OF DOMESTIC RELATIONS BILL
November 18, 2003 – (IRIN) Officers from a leading legal support network for women in Uganda have commended the government's recent approval of the controversial Domestic Relations Bill.

WOMEN URGED TO FORM PARTY
November 18, 2003 – (The Monitor - Kampala) Women should form a party to push for their rights, a Makerere University don has said.

UGANDA WOMEN MPS IMPRESS KENYANS
November 17, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) KENYAN women ministers and MPs who are here for a working visit have been overwhelmed by the numbers and vibrancy of their Ugandan counterparts in active politics, reports Cyprian Musoke.

'POLYGAMY ENCOURAGES RIGHTS ABUSE'
November 14, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) THE Uganda Women's Network (UWONET) has called for the outlawing of polygamy, saying it promotes human rights abuse.

UGANDAN WOMEN CALLED UPON TO SPEARHEAD PEACE TALKS
November 11, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) Gone are the days when issues of peace building were considered entirely a man's job. The role of women in peace building, negotiations and mediation during and after wars is slowly being accepted and given due recognition locally and internationally. Unfortunately, not many women have lived up to this challenge.

UGANDAN ARMY RESCUES 120 CHILDREN FROM REBEL CAPTIVITY
November 2, 2003 - (AFP) The Ugandan army said Sunday that it had rescued some 120 children who had been abducted by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from three northern districts during the past week.

NORTHERN UGANDA'S BRUTAL WAR: MURDER, RAPE, ABDUCTIONS AND MUTILATIONS IN THE NAME OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
October 31, 2003 – (Pambazuka – Editorial) As 2003 draws to a close, the conflict in northern Uganda shows no sign of abating. For the past seventeen years the north of Uganda has been mired in a conflict that is difficult to understand. Since the National Resistance Movement (NRM), now known as the Movement, came to power in 1986, the government has been bogged down in numerous armed conflicts. However, unlike those that came before it and even during it, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) led by Joseph Kony has managed to survive, where other armed groups negotiated peace talks, surrendered under amnesties or were just wiped out by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF).

LIRA WOMEN CALL FOR PEACE TALKS
October 29, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) LIRA women have petitioned President Yoweri Museveni to seek dialogue with Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels to end the 17-year-old insurgency.

WOMEN DEMAND LAW TO WEED OUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
October 23, 2003 - (IPS) Rights campaigners in Uganda are demanding a law to protect women from domestic violence, which has been blamed for the high prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS among them.

WORLD BODY TAKES RAPE CASE TO BUSH
October 17, 2003 - (The Monitor - Kampala) Human Rights Watch has written to President George W. Bush urging him to push President Yoweri Museveni to ensure that the law criminalising marital rape is passed quickly.

LOUMO SPEARHEADS THE KARIMOJONG WOMEN'S PEACE DRIVE
October 14, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) The blessing by the Emuron, the witchdoctor, is absolutely necessary shortly before Karimojong warriors set out for war or to rustle cattle. After the Emuron has studied the war map and given the impending battle for cattle a blessing, the women then step into the picture.

UN URGES MORE FOCUS ON PLIGHT OF CHILDREN IN NORTH
September 29, 2003 - (IRIN) The plight of children abducted by rebels in northern Uganda is not getting enough international attention, the UN has warned. According to the Office of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (OSRSG-CAAC), more prominence should be given to the tragedy which has been unfolding for nearly two decades.

UGANDAN WOMEN JOIN THE PEACE WAGON, AS REBELS WREAK HAVOC
September 24, 2003 - (IPS) Rosemary Nyeko is a bitter woman. She remembers how rebels ruined her life when they burned her house in northern Uganda last year.

REPORT: DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN UGANDA INCREASES RISK OF AIDS FOR WOMEN
August 28, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) A HUMAN Rights Watch (HRW) report reveals that the Ugandan government's failure to address rape and attacks on women by their husbands increases women's risk of contracting HIV.

93% OF FEMALES LANDLESS
August 26, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) UP to 93% of the women in Uganda are landless, the parliamentary women's Association vice-chairperson, Loice Biira Bwambale, said. Bwambale was recently delivering a paper on Land Ownership and Women Rights in Uganda: What has been achieved so far?" Bwambale, also Kasese woman MP, was addressing over 100 delegates at a regional women leaders' workshop at Hotel Margherita in Kasese. The workshop was organised by the Uganda Women parliamentarians association and the European parliamentarians for Africa. She blamed the discrepancy on negative traditional practices which exclude women in land ownership.From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200308260699.html

'GOVERNMENT FAILS TO PROTECT WOMEN'
August 23, 2003 – (New Vision - Kampala) The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused government of failure to protect women against HIV/AIDS by delaying the domestic relations legislation.

DIE QUIETLY: HOW AIDS KILLS AFRICA'S BATTERED WOMEN
August 18, 2003 - (Reuters) You can learn about condoms, know that fidelity or abstinence can protect you from AIDS, but if your husband is HIV-positive, violent and wants sex, there is not a whole lot you can do.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE WORSENS AIDS IN UGANDA
August 13, 2003 – (HRW Press Release) The Ugandan government's failure to protect women from domestic violence and discrimination increases women's risk of contracting HIV, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. For the full report, “Just Die Quietly: Domestic Violence and Women’s Vulnerability to HIV in Uganda,” click here.

'GULU WOMEN LIVE WITH FEAR OF RAPE'
July 16, 2003 – (The Monitor -Kampala) Women in northern Uganda live under fear of rape.The women and girls are victims of the long-running war between government troops and Mr Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army rebels.

SHARP DECLINE IN HUMAN RIGHTS IN UGANDA
July 15, 2003 - (HRW) Abductions, torture, recruitment of child soldiers, and other abuses have sharply increased in the past year in northern Uganda due to renewed fighting between Ugandan government forces and rebels, a coalition of national and international organizations said in a report released today. For the full report, click here.

RIGHTS BODY AIDS WOMEN
July 2, 2003 – (The Monitor - Kampala) Anti Mines Network Rwenzori (AMNET-R), a Kasese-based non-governmental organisation has received a donation of Shs 30 million from Human Rights Network to help rehabilitate formerly abducted women and their children.

UGANDA WOMEN PEACE-BUILDERS TO VISIT KENYA AND TANZANIA
July 2003 – (WOUGNET) A group of 45 women community peace builders from Uganda will visit different women groups in Kenya and Tanzania from 17th to 21st June 2003. The exchange visit is the climax of the four year (1999 - 2002) training that Isis-WICCE has conducted on conflict resolution and peace building.

SOME UGANDAN GIRLS FLEE CAPTORS
June 26, 2003 – (UN Wire) At least 13 of the Ugandan girls captured Monday by fighters from the rebel Lord's Resistance Army have escaped, but 18 others remain missing, and army officials have intensified their search for those still lost.

SEX SLAVERY AWAITS UGANDAN SCHOOLGIRLS
June 25, 2003 – (BBC) Security forces in Uganda are again hunting for schoolgirls who have been abducted by the notoriously brutal rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army. For an AFP article on the same topic, click here.

UPCOMING SECURITY COUNCIL MISSIONS TO AFRICA: WILL THERE BE A GENDER PERSPECTIVE?
May 30, 2003 – (PeaceWomen) In June, the Security Council members will travel to Central and West Africa in order to witness the current armed conflict and post-conflict situations in countries in the respective regions. On June 7, the Council members- led by the French- will depart for the Great Lakes region, where they will spend a week visiting six countries, including Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania. Later in the month, on June 28, the British will lead a Council mission to West Africa, where the Council members will spend six days visiting Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

MUSEVENI BACKS UN WOMEN'S PLAN
May 7, 2003 - (The Monitor -Kampala) President Yoweri Museveni has pledged his support for the newly launched Digital Diaspora Initiative in Africa. He promised to promote it among his fellow African leaders under the framework of the African Union.

FEAR FOR CHILDREN AS CEASEFIRE COLLAPSES IN NORTH
April 30, 2003 – (IRIN) The head of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, has expressed concern over the renewed abduction of children and women by the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) following the recent collapse a ceasefire in northern Uganda.

AFRICAN WOMEN TO TALK PEACE IN KAMPALA
April 21, 2003 – (The Monitor -Kampala) Women delegates from 10 African countries meet in Kampala this week to prepare a documentary on women's peace initiatives on the continent.

UGANDAN WOMEN'S WORKSHOP RESOLVES "WAR-MONGER" HUSBANDS SHOULD BE DENIED SEX
April 10, 2003 – (New Vision-Kampala) If your husband is a war monger deny him sex, women attending a one-day public dialogue in Kampala have resolved. "Women should use all their means to dissuade their husbands from engaging in war. If they still insist then it should be a yes-to-war, no-to-sex situation," Jackie Asiimwe, the coordinator of Uganda Women Network, read the resolution on Tuesday [8 April] at the International Conference Centre.

RIGHTS GROUP SEES SURGE IN CHILD ABDUCTIONS IN UGANDA, SEEKS U.N. ENVOY
March 28, 2003 – (UN Wire) Human Rights Watch released a new report today indicating that about 5,000 children have since June been abducted by Lord's Resistance Army rebels in Uganda, compared with fewer than 100 abductions for all of 2001. The rights group said the Ugandan government also recruits children, some of whom are used as fighters against the rebels. Human Rights Watch called on the U.N. Human Rights Commission to ask U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to appoint a special envoy on child soldiers in Uganda. To read the report, which includes a section on the experience of girls abducted into the rebel army, visit: http://hrw.org/reports/2003/uganda0303/

GULU WOMEN CRY FOR PEACE
March 18, 2003 – (New Vision -Kampala) On a dry and windy morning, the women marched forward in a long line stretching nearly half a kilometre from the office of the Gulu Resident District Commissioner to Kaunda Grounds.Some wore sandals. others were barefoot in gomesi, T-shirts and ebitengi. Trauma was visible on their faces. They told tales of massacre, rape, abduction and numerous atrocities against them by the rebels in the area.

UGANDAN, MOBINA JAFFER, SHINES IN CANADA
March 15, 2003 – (New Vision-Kampala) Mobina Jaffer is a Ugandan-born Asian lady working as a senator in British Columbia in Canada. She fled Uganda in 1975 during Idi Amin's regime. Patrick Luganda writes that she is an accomplished lawyer and special Canadian peace envoy to Sudan. She has also won several prestigious appointments in successive Canadian governments.

KAMPALA AGREES TO APPOINTMENT OF U.N. ENVOY FOR CHILD SOLDIERS
March 12, 2003 – (UN Wire) Uganda has agreed to the appointment of a special envoy from the U.N. Human Rights Commission to address the issue of child soldiers in northern parts of the country, Austria's Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

UGANDAN GIRLS IN S. AFRICA SEX TRADE
March 4, 2003 – (New Vision – Kampala) Young girls are being smuggled to South Africa where they end up as child prostitutes, a senior South African police officer has said…"I was taken aback to realise that young girls from Uganda are being abducted and smuggled into South Africa where they are turned into child prostitutes," he said.

REBELS CONTINUE TO ABDUCT CHILDREN INTO RANKS IN UGANDA
February 28, 2003 – (UN Wire) Lord's Resistance Army rebels this week continued their campaign of abducting children to serve as sex slaves and child soldiers, with several attacks on schools in northern Uganda, according to press reports.

HIGH LEVELS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN RURAL AREAS OF UGANDA
January 27, 2003 - (IRIN) A study has shown that about one in three women living in rural areas of Uganda experiences verbal or physical threats from their partners. Fifty percent of them receive injuries as a result.

A MOTHER'S BITTER CHOICE: TELLING KIDNAPPERS NO
January 25, 2003 – (New York Times) Angelina Atyam has faced an awful trauma, and an awful choice. Her fourth child, Charlotte, was one of 139 girls snatched in the early morning of Oct. 10, 1996, from St. Mary's College, a Catholic boarding school in the northern Ugandan town of Aboke.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE LEVELS HIGH IN RURAL UGANDA
January 23, 2003 – (EurekAlert) Male to female domestic violence levels in rural Uganda are high and associated with both alcohol consumption and the male partner's perceived risk of HIV, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The study found that approximately one in three women living in rural Uganda reported being physically threatened or assaulted by their current partner.

2002

LITTLE CHANGE FOR WOMEN IN UGANDA DESPITE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
December 20, 2002 – (IRIN) Since coming to power in 1986, Uganda's National Resistance Movement (NRM) has made significant strides towards including women as partners in the country's development and decision-making process. But tradition dies hard, and Ugandan
women complain there is still a long way to go.

GOVERNMENT PLANNING MUST BE GENDER BALANCED IN UGANDA
December 3, 2002 – (New Vision, Uganda) Government bodies have to ensure that their plans and programmes target men and women in order to address their unique needs. This will also improve on men and women's contribution to the development process in Uganda.

FAO DENOUNCES THE RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS TO INFORMATION BY RURAL WOMEN
August 7, 2002 - (FAO) In the context of the Know How Conference 2002 held last week in Kampala, Uganda, on the collection and dissemination of information relevant to women, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has denounced the limited access by rural women to the new information technologies.

LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE - SEX EDUCATION FOR YOUNG WOMEN
July 29, 2002 - (PAMBAZUKA NEWS) Knowledge about AIDS is dangerously low among rural Ugandan women and girls who have dropped out of school. The 'senga', the father‚s sister, used to give sexual advice to young girls, but this tradition is dying out in central Uganda. Could it be revived and adapted to provide information about HIV?

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S CONFERENCE OPENS IN KAMPALA
July 23, 2002 - Over 2,000 women from around the world gathered in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Monday to share views on discrimination and rights violations in normal and war-torn societies.

WOMEN WANT MUSEVENI WORD ON BILL IN UGANDA
May 29, 2002 - (Pambazuka news) The Uganda Women Parliamentary Association and the Coalition on the Domestic Relations Bill have agreed to lobby President Yoweri Museveni and the First Lady to support them on the Bill. The decision was reached at a meeting chaired by UWOPA chairperson, Loice Bwambale, at Parliament Buildings in Kampala.

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