The ICGLR Heads of State and Government committed to eradicate all forms of Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) in the Great lakes Region. This commitment is contained in the signed Pact on Security, Stability and Development. “The Member States undertake, in accordance with the Protocol on the Prevention and Suppression of Violence Against Women and Children, to combat sexual violence against women and children through preventing, criminalizing and punishing acts of sexual violence, both in times of peace and in times of war, in accordance with national laws and international criminal law” (Article 11). In December 2011, Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the ICGLR at their Fourth Ordinary Summit and Special Session on SGBV signed the Kampala Declaration on SGBV and directed the ICGLR Secretariat to follow-up on the implementation and report to Regional Inter-Ministerial Committee (RIMC) and Summit on regular basis.
The ICGLR has already organised assessment meetings in Angola, CAR, DRC and Rwanda. And this year, assessment is being made in Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia. Some countries are making commendable progress while others still have many challenges in fighting the crime of (SGBV). The major objective of the workshop is to review Uganda’s progress and challenges in the implementation of the Resolutions of the Heads of States’ Summit of December 2011 contained in Kampala Declaration. The Kampala Declaration has 19 resolutions directed towards ICGLR Member States’ commitment to prevent, fight impunity and support victims of SGBV. From 29-30th August 2017, stakeholders, experts and professionals on combating SGBV will meet in Kampala to assess the implementation of Kampala Declaration of SGBV in Uganda. The workshop will be attended by technical people from the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, representative from Parliament, Police, Prisons, UPDF, Lawyers, Medical doctors, and representatives from Civil Society organizations involved in SGBV.
The workshop is organized by the ICGLR-Regional Training Facility (RTF) together with the ICGLR National Coordination Mechanism (NCM) with financial support from ICGLR-Executive Secretariat (Bujumbura- Burundi) and FIDA-(Uganda). The RTF, based in Uganda, is an institution of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) based in Bujumbura, Burundi. The RTF specific mandate is to train and sensitize judicial officers, police units, medical officers, social workers and other categories of persons who handle sexual violence cases.
To that end, the 12 Member States of ICGLR established the RTF under a specific protocol on prevention and suppression of Sexual violence against women and children, to train and sensitise stakeholders on the most effective ways of handling sexual violence cases.
According to Mr. Nathan M Byamukama, the Ag. Director of the RTF, the workshop will focus on the progress made and as well as impediments in the implementation of the Kampala Declaration on SGBV.
The workshop will be addressed among others by the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented by Amb. Arthur Kafeero, the Director, Public Prosecutions Uganda– Mike J. Chibita, the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Hon. Janat Mukwaya.
