5 January 2009
column
Kampala — Happy New Year to you all. As we enter a new dawn, let us reflect on the achievements women have made and think about the areas where change still needs to be seen.
Yes, we have made strides in certain areas like breast cancer, safe motherhood and violence against women, but no doubt, we still have a long stretch ahead of us.
Let us now determine to make even bigger strides in 2009. Gender-based violence, for instance is still major issue in many rural communities - not to say it is not happening among the urban elite. Sensitisation campaigns need to carried out to expose this evil.
The law should be more stringent so that perpetrators get a just punishment, unlike now when cases are dismissed on technical basis.
Another thing to combat is Female Genital Mutilation. There is a silver lining here because even some of the elderly women who are responsible for carrying out this heinous act have decided to lay down their knives.
Parliament needs to pass the bill to criminalise FGM with immediate effect to save the young girls who are at risk. It is, no doubt, a violation of human rights and must not be tolerated.
Let 2009 be the year when we will have zero tolerance to women's rights being tramped and at the end of it, be able to say, yes we did it.
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