Civil Society Organisations agree on a way forward after the Geneva CEDAW Convention

Following up on the concluding remarks and observations on Uganda by the 47th Conclusions by the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Committee that gathered in Geneva from 4th-22 October 2010, ACFODE took up a number of activities to inform, support, lobby and advocate for their implementation . Among these were a Press Conference that was held on the 18th of Jan. 2011 and a workshop that took place on the 20th.Jan.2011 at ACFODE House.

In 2010, CEDAW ratified states gathered in Geneva to discuss the status of gender-related issues. Uganda, represented by a number of councils from the Government, Civil Society and NGOs was part of the event. The CEDAW Committee commended Uganda, for the roles she has played in eliminating discrimination against women.

Notably among these commendation were the inaction of; The Domestic Violence Act 3 (2010), The Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act 5 (2010) and The amendments to the Penal Code prohibiting defilement of girls and boys (2007).

During the convention, a number of concluding observations and recommendations for Uganda were reached by CEDAW committee, basing on issues that limit/foster the protection, empowerment and involvement of women in the social, political and economic spheres of the life.

The Committee took note of a number of important decisions of the Constitutional Court that declare part of the existing legislation unconstitutional for being discriminatory against women for example the discriminatory laws in the legislative system, poor visibility of the CEDAW and continued weak institutional capacity of the ministry of Gender.

Following this high-level dialogue between the Government of Uganda and the committee, ACFODE, one of the organizations that attended IWRAW training and the CEDAW Reporting, organized a number of activities (press brief and workshop) with support from IWRAW. The purposes of holding the activities were as follows:

• To disseminate the CEDAW Committee’s Concluding Observations to different stakeholders

• To share experiences gained at the IWRAW training and the CEDAW Sessions with national women’s rights activists

• To advocate to the State Party to implement the Convention and the Concluding Observations.

Outputs from the press conference

• A total of 47 journalists attended the press briefing and were equipped with knowledge on CEDAW Committee’s Concluding Observations on Uganda for onward broadcasting on radio and TV stations as well as in the print media

• Different media houses aired the concluding CEDAW Committee observation on Uganda as a State Party for instance Nile Broadcasting Corporation, one of the most popular local television channel.

• The press conference provided an opportunity for the media to interact with ACFODE and other civil society organization that were represented

Outputs from the workshop

A one day workshop was held on 20th January 2011. In attendance were representatives from women rights organizations; other CSOs, Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development; Ministry of Health; United Nations High Commissioner For Human Rights; European Union and the Media. A total 42 participants attended. The purpose of the workshop was to provide a platform for women who attended the CEDAW session in Geneva to share their experiences, discuss the CEDAW concluding recommendations on Uganda with participants and determine how best to take the issues forward.

In the way forward organizations agreed that ACFODE:

• Compile the proceedings of the workshop and forward to all participants.

• Send a formal communication to all organizations requesting them to come with concrete actions since majority of the participants didn’t have the mandate to commit the organizations

• Follow up on the organizations to ensure that they submit their action plans/points within a period of three weeks

• Coordinate and involve the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development in the whole process

• Form a cohesive and coherent CSOs coalition to ensure follow up of workshop deliberations, awareness and advocacy on the Concluding Observations

Participants also appreciated the issues that were raised by the CEDAW Committee on women’s rights promotion in Uganda. As CSOs, they realized that it is their role to follow up and ensure that the Government meets its obligation in addressing issues of discrimination against women. A quick observation made by the participants during the workshop was that they had been re-energized to monitor and disseminate information on concluding observations as evidenced by the actions that they identified to follow up.

Submitted By Sandra Nassali

Public Relations & Communications Officer

Action For Development