Women urge end to child marriages at second international Peace Expo.
Isis-WICCE 
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Isis-WICCE in partnership with CARE Uganda, Uganda Women Parliamentary Forum (UWOPA) began a four-day peace exposition in Kasese town focusing on child marriages as a one of the most prominent forms of sexual violence against women in the district.
Kasese is a post-conflict community that has not received much attention in terms of national development plans and policies and the purpose of holding the expo here is to highlight needs of people of Kasese and call on government to do more to lift the Rwenzururu people out of poverty.
The first Peace Exposition was held last year in Soroti district and it highlighted the need for government to implement the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 to protect, prevent and promote women’s rights in conflict and post conflict areas. The Kasese Peace Expo was organized with Kasese War Widows Network, a local womens NGO working to bring about dignity of women who have taken long to recover from war.
Women from different countries at the peace exposition in Kasese on Monday Nov 28.
The Chief guest, His Majesty the king of Rwenzururu Kigdom Charles Wesley Mumbere acknowledged that violence is a global problem and quoted Koffi Annan, the former Secretary General of the UN that domestic violence knows no bounds and that it is the most pervasive and shameful human rights violation.
The Omusinga pointed out the lack of interest by law enforcement offices particularly the Police Force was exacerbating the problem.
“They are not interested in a domestic violence case.”
He highlighted major causes of domestic violence in the region where his kingdom lies as unemployment, substance abuse, poverty, landlessness, lack of family planning, property inheritance as well as forced and early marriages and unequal opportunities.
“The people of Rwenzururu have faced conflict for a long time from 1962 to 2002. The veterans have never been compensated, and unfortunately the post Rwenzururu conflict was overshadowed by the LRA conflict in northern Uganda.”
He said that the women of Rwenzururu have endured poverty and have become victims of the frustrations of the men since the disillusioned men turn their dissatisfaction onto the women in turn.
The King of Rwenzururu puts his support behind the PEAR Campaign to end rape.
Isis-WICCE launched a PEAR (Peace, Empowerment, Accountability and Reclaiming) Campaign to end rape of women in armed conflict.
The campaign was timely and tied in the 16 days of activism and theme “Challenging militarism and violence against women.”
The goal of the campaign is to advocate for rehabilitation of survivors of sexual violence in six countries in Africa by 2014.
The campaign, which is on the African continent level, aims to build a movement of anti-rape campaigners and also urge countries to increase the number of countries ratifying and domesticating the African Union Protocol on Women’s Rights in three years.
The Peace Exposition will go on until December 1 and local women and their leaders in a move to find ways to end sexual will discuss different issues and gender-based violence. Over 200 grassroots women from different parts of Uganda are taking part in the Peace Exposition.
1 Comment to “Women urge end to child marriages at second international Peace Expo.”
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The expo was well attended, was visible and transformative. ISIS WICCE created a robust platform for sharing ideas. There were many child mothers. Guess who made them pregnant; teachers, police, priests, etc; people entrusted with ensuring their security. They Child mothers lead and created debates on critical issues.
COngratulations ISIS WICCE for intergrating diverse cultures during the expo and for organising and managing such a huge event.