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| NEWS > 31 December 2007 |
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Harvard Investigates Univ. Pol
Harvard University will launch an examination of the campus Police Department following long-running complaints that officers have unfairly treated black students and professors and, in an incident this month, a black high school student working at Harvard.
President Drew Gilpin Faust announced Tuesday that she has appointed an independent, six-member committee to review the diversity training, community outreach, and recruitment efforts of Harvard police, the first review of its kind in more than a decade. In recent weeks, black student and faculty leaders have been pressing the univ... Read more
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East African - Nairobi,Kenya
31 December 2007
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Sexual violence continues unab
The Uganda government is failing to address violence against women and girls in northern Uganda, Amnesty International says.
In a report, “Doubly Traumatised: Lack of access to justice for female victims of sexual and gender-based violence in northern Uganda,” Amnesty is concerned that despite the cessation of hostilities in the conflict in northern Uganda, the incidence of violence against women and girls remains high.
The organisation is further concerned that because of many insurmountable challenges and practices in the legal system, there is a culture of entrenched impunity for violence against women.
Amnesty International believes that it is the failure by the state to take action against violence against women which allows it to continue. The government must take immediate action to ensure that victims will have the confidence that cases of violence against women in northern Uganda will be appropriately and effectively investigated by the police and the perpetrators brought to justice.
Women and girls in northern Uganda suffer sexual and gender-based violence committed by state actors — government officers and military officers — and non-state actors within the family and in the community. They, however, face insurmountable difficulties when seeking justice.
Many are afraid to report rape and other forms of violence, not only because of intimidation, hostility and ridicule from the community, but also inaction on the part of government officers.
Amnesty considers victims’ lack of access to justice as an issue of serious concern warranting the immediate attention of the government and the international community.
The human-rights body visited five districts of northern Uganda (Gulu, Amuru, Kitgum, Pader and Lira) in August 2007. The delegates learnt firsthand of the experiences of female victims of violence in attempting to access justice, the discrimination they suffer in the process and the entrenched culture of impunity that prevails regarding cases of rape, defilement, domestic violence, assault and other forms of violence.
The biggest problem noted was the lack of police stations and officers where they can be found they serve a large area which renders them ineffective. More often than not, the police officers who are available are not sensitised to handle gender-based violence. This problem is compounded by the fact that a majority of the police officers in northern Uganda are special police constables (SPCs) who are newly deployed, have limited training and are ill equipped and unmotivated.
Most police stations lack basic stationery such as medical examination forms, which have to be filled out by the medical officer carrying out the examination on a victim of violence and which are crucial for documenting evidence of violence. Where the medical examination forms are available, bribery is rampant and complainants are usually required to pay an illegal “photocopying fee.”
It is also not clear as to which medical officer is authorised to fill it in and complainants have to wait inordinately long periods for the medical examination to be conducted, as government doctors and medical officers are few and far between and despite charging for the services, they are reluctant to give evidence in court.
Although the court structure is taking shape and the judiciary is beginning to function in a limited manner in northern Uganda, these courts are barely adequate and have overwhelming case loads. All these constraints often mean that even where a case is referred for trial, very few cases, if any, are successfully concluded. The result is that many female victims of sexual and gender-based violence have lost trust in the justice system and opt to remain silent.
Amnesty has come up with a raft of recommendations. It has asked the government of Uganda to review existing laws that discriminate against women. The government should ensure that perpetrators of sexual and gender-based crimes are brought to justice in fair trials that comply with the provisions in the Uganda Constitution and international legal standards, excluding the death penalty.
The government should also introduce new legislation which prohibits all acts of violence against women, whether committed by state officials or private individuals, and to establish legal protection against such acts. The prohibited acts should include acts that take place within the community or within the family, specifically, including marital rape.
It should ratify the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa and comply with its obligations under these Protocols.
The government should investigate and act on police misconduct relating to the reporting and investigation of sexual and gender-based violence. It should ensure the deployment of adequate, competent police personnel, including trained and qualified female police officers, to deal with cases of sexual and gender based violence.
Further, the government should ensure that the police are provided with adequate human and financial resources, including transport, basic office equipment and stationery. It should also ensure that perpetrators of sexual and gender-based crimes are brought to justice.
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