Uganda’s new Sexual Offences Act fails to address the toxic culture of victim blaming
Posted: 2 July, 2021 Filed under: Elizabeth Kemigisha | Tags: consent, gender-based violence, girls, justice, sex, sexual activity, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), sexual assault, sexual crimes, sexual offences, Sexual Offences Act, Sexual Offences Bill, sexual violence, sgbv, toxic, Uganda, victim blaming, victims, women, women's human rights, women's rights 1 Comment
Author: Elizabeth Kemigisha
FIDA Uganda
On 3 May 2021, Uganda’s Parliament passed the Sexual Offences Act, 2021. This Act – which has been 21 years in the making – can be applauded for increasing protection and redress to survivors of sex-related crimes. The majority of MPs supported the Bill and its core purpose of combating sexual violence and consolidating laws of sexual offences, providing for punishment of perpetrators of sexual offenses, providing for procedural and evidential requirements during trial of sexual offences and other related matters. Many of the MPs agreed that if passed the Bill would fill the gaps that exist in the current laws making the legal framework more adequate and aligned with the international human rights standards that Uganda ascribes to. However, the final version of the Bill which was passed falls short of these international standards for the protection of human rights – and the rights of women in particular – on various fronts, including in its limited definition of rape, its failure to recognise marital rape and the criminalisation of false sexual accusations.
Banning female circumcision in The Gambia through legislative change: The next steps
Posted: 19 January, 2016 Filed under: Satang Nabaneh | Tags: Africa, Anti-FGM Board, Anti-FGM Prosecution Unit, Domestic Violence Act, female circumcision, female genital mutilation, fgm, harmful traditional practices, Maputo Protocol, Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, right to dignity, right to health, Sexual Offences Act, The Gambia, women's rights, Women’s (Amendment) Bill 2015 19 Comments
Author: Satang Nabaneh
Lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of The Gambia.
There is nothing more powerful than a decision made at the right time, especially one which is a desideratum. So it was with the ban on female genital mutilation (FGM) in The Gambia. From the coastal village of Brufut, on the chilly night of 24 November 2015, President Jammeh declared a ban on FGM stating that it was a cultural and not a religious practice (that is not to say that the practice would have been justifiable if it was a religious practice, given its well documented harmful effects). The news was as unexpected as it was music to the ear. It was every campaigner’s wish, to see an end to FGM in The Gambia. This was swiftly followed by the passing of the Women’s (Amendment) Bill 2015 by the National Assembly on 2 December 2015 to prohibit female circumcision. The amendment addresses one of the key deficiencies of the Women’s Act 2010 which was the absence of a provision on eliminating harmful traditional practices. The Amendment Act added sections 32A and 32B in the Women’s Act. With the enactment, The Gambia joined a number of African countries in adopting legislation as a reform strategy for ending FGM.
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