KAMPALA – Uganda Parliamentary Women’s Association (UWOPA) has trained several senior civil servants and judiciary on CEDAW and adolescent girls to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women.
Ms. Harriet Lamunu, the UWOPA programme coordinator, revealed this Friday, April 26, in her opening remarks at Parliament that much as women have reached somewhere, there is still need to have more in top positions if gender issues are to be advanced.
Ms. Lamunu said that the aim of the training was to enhance the capacity of the servants to be able to advocate and lobby or issues affecting both women and girls so that both women and men are at the same level.
She further thanked the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga for advocating for 40% of leadership positions to be reserved for women but we still to do more in other areas.
She added that women have rights with men to acquire, change, or retain their nationality and that of their children and also women have equal rights with men in education, including equal access to schools, vocational training, and scholarship opportunities.
She commended the judiciary for taking gender issues seriously because unlike before, women can now access justice since the services are nearer to them.
CEDAW contains 30 articles that define discrimination and provide a practical blueprint to promote basic rights.
“Women also have an equal right to vote, hold office, and participate in civil society as well as work at the international level without discrimination among other rights,” Ms. Lamunu emphasized.
UWOPA’s programme assistant, Ms. Sandra Heather Bazanya, noted that that CEDAW is the convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. It’s an international instrument established by the United Nations and Uganda is a party to it.
“CEDAW provides the basis for realizing gender equality and offers states parties the roadmap for overcoming barriers of discrimination and achieving progress for women. It also establishes a framework for human rights and gender balance in all spheres of lives as well as the most comprehensive international agreement on the basic human rights of women,” Ms. Bazanya said.
Some of the recommendations include; need to involve men in community sensitization instead as opposed to only women, increase budget allocation to gender, engage local leaders to mention but a few.
