CSOs hopeful Marriage and Divorce Act to settle marriage disputes

By Francis Lubega

23^rd Nov 2022

A group of 35 Civil Society Organizations under their umbrella body, the Center for Domestic Violence Coalition Act have called for speedy legislation on the Marriage and divorce Act in parliament to settle the marriage disputes in the families.

This follows the recent constitutional court ruling between Joseph Ambayo and the wife Jackeline Aserua where it was ruled that it’s not automatic for the divorced couples to get equal share of the marital properties.

Addressing journalists ahead of the 16 days of activism of violence against women that starts on 25th November to 10^th December 2022, under the theme ending Femicide, Grace Lukwago from the Center for Domestic Violence Prevention – CEDOVIP, said the ruling is an eye opener to legislators to urgently address the issues of marital status before havoc covers families.

Meanwhile, the Bahai Faith’s External Affairs Officer Flavia Ssenoga proposed that the government should now empower, facilitate and revive local government courts to enable them handle family matters at local levels to avoid case backlogs in the high court’s which delays the delivery of justice to women.

According to statistics from Uganda bureau of Statistics 2022, 51% of women between 15-45 years of age are exposed to women violence and 55% of women are subjected to sexual related violence.

The Violence against women has been also contributed to power imbalances given to men than women, cultural norms, society believes against women and others.

It’s from this that the center for domestic violence coalition act has proposed to the government to implement policies against gender based violence, fund activities against gender based violence, and provide protection to victims of gender based violence.