Ugandan Women call for passage of sexual offenses bills
Women activists carry placards demanding family values legislation that protects women, during a media briefing held on May 9, 2025, in Kampala. Photo/Mike Sebalu
What you need to know:
- “We have seen previous conferences—the first and second—telling women to abandon their work, go home, cook for their husbands, and be submissive. They blame women for the breakdown of families, as if men have nothing to do with what is going on,” Ms Wakikona said.
Women activists in Uganda have called on legislators attending the ongoing Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Entebbe to prioritize recommendations that support women and girls, and ensure that African families work for everyone, not just men.
The three-day 3rd African Regional Parliamentary Conference on family values and sovereignty took place in Entebbe from May 9 to 11, 2025. It is a follow-up to the first and second conferences on the same theme: Towards an African Charter on Sovereignty and Values. The event featured keynote addresses, plenary discussions, and open dialogue sessions.
Speaking in Kampala on May 9, Ms Rose Wakikona, Deputy Executive Director of the Women Probono Initiative, said the conference should focus on enhancing family values while also promoting bodily autonomy, economic empowerment, and agency for women.
“We have seen previous conferences, the first and second, telling women to abandon their work, go home, cook for their husbands, and be submissive. They blame women for the breakdown of families, as if men have nothing to do with what is going on,” Ms Wakikona said.
She criticized the long delays in passing key legislation affecting families, particularly laws aimed at protecting women and children.
“The Marriage Bill has been pending since 1964, and the Sexual Offenses Bill since 2017. If you claim to be pro-family, why are you not passing laws that protect people within families?” she asked.
Asked about the cause of the delays, Wakikona said the bills are progressive and empower women, children, and men—challenging traditional norms that place men at the top and others as subordinates.
Activists also cited structural challenges in Parliament, including the fact that women make up only 23% of MPs. Even with unanimous support from women MPs, they noted, such bills cannot pass without broader parliamentary backing.
They further criticized entrenched patriarchal norms that, they said, trivialize women’s issues.
Ms Yvone Mpambara, a social justice advocate with the Feminist Movement Uganda, echoed calls for immediate legislative reform.
“We call for the passing of the Marriage Bill 2024 after removing regressive clauses that criminalize women and offer them no protection under the law, especially the clause that criminalizes cohabitation,” she said.
She added, “We also call for the passing of the Sexual Offenses Bill 2024, after removing the clause that criminalizes sex work, among others.”
Meanwhile, at the opening of the conference on May 9, President Yoweri Museveni threatened to withdraw Uganda from the Samoa Conference recommendations, citing concerns that they conflict with African family values.
“This Samoa Conference, I heard about it. Initially Uganda had not signed that document, but we were told ‘no, no, no, it is harmless.’ But now you are here, and our lawyers are here, study that Samoa document. If it really contains all those things you’re talking about, reproductive rights and so on, then we shall have to pull out from that nonsense,” Mr Museveni said.
