Catherine Bekunda and Richard Kanagumire
17 October 2008
Kampala — A coalition of NGOs is mounting pressure on the Government to speedily implement birth registration countrywide as one of the ways to fight child abuse.
They say in the absence of birth registration, defilers are getting off scot-free simply because the state cannot prove the victim's ages. "We are advocating for the establishment of strong mechanisms to aid in birth registration so that verifying of ages for abused children is made simpler" said Thomas Cole, the Programme Development Director of Save the Children, Uganda.
Police statistics show child sexual abuse as being rampant, with over 10,000 children being sexually abused annually for the past five years. Moreover, in 2001, there were 65,000 married children in the country while in 2005, a total of 22,000 children were involved in commercial sex, according to the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2001.
"Parents of abused children enter into agreement with the crime perpetrators and settle the matter at a small cost without reporting the matter to the authorities. This has made children vulnerable to their abusers," explained Topher Mugumya, the Advocacy and Communication manager at Save the Children, Uganda, while addressing journalists on Wednesday.
The NGOs, which include Save the children, ANPPCAN Uganda Chapter, World Vision, Plan Uganda, Raising Voices Concerned Parents Association and Defence for Children International will on Monday, October 20, have a charity walk. It will start at Buganda Road Primary School and end at Parliament where they will present a petition asking for the enactment of the national birth registration policy.
The current birth registration by medical personnel is inaccessible to most people.
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