Rights activists under their umbrella body the Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET) have appealed to parliament to fast-track gender bills that were recently returned to the 11th parliament.
The call has been made during the belated commemoration event of International Human Rights Day which also marked the end of the global 16 days of activism against gender-based violence
Rita Aciro, the Executive Director of UWONET said that sexual violence is a silent killer amongst several women and girls, adding that bills like the Sexual Offenses Bill 2019 should be passed for victims to get redress.
In August 2021, President Yoweri Museveni declined to sign the bill into law, suggesting that much of its content was already covered by existing legislation.
Among other concerns, the bill proposed that a person who unlawfully gives, displays, distributes, or supplies to a child material of a sexual nature, illustrating a sexual act or mimicking a sexual organ commits an offence and is liable on conviction, to imprisonment for a period of ten years.
