Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been criticized for not signing a domestic violence bill into law.
Alice Alaso, the secretary-general of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the main opposition party in Uganda, said the president had yet to give the bill assent, despite it being passed by parliament.
It was given the green light by the Cabinet more than a year ago.
Last week the state minister for youth and children’s affairs, Jessica Alupo, said the delay was because the president was still studying the bill.
The bill will afford legal protection to people in abusive relationships for the first time.
Currently, most women have no say in affairs relating to their home life, and many have lost their lives through domestic violence.
The bill is intended to protect sufferers of domestic violence, punish perpetrators and set guidelines for courts on the protection and compensation of abused women.
Figures from the Uganda Bureau of Statistics in 2007 show 68 percent of married women aged 15 to 49 had experienced some form of violence inflicted by their spouse or intimate partner.
According to the 2006 Uganda Law Reform Commission study, domestic violence is most common in northern Uganda, where it was reported to have occurred in 78 percent of homes. Most women do not report cases of domestic violence to authorities and police rarely intervene or investigate.
Often women are reluctant to file a complaint for fear of reprisal, embarrassment, poverty, ignorance of the law or not knowing where to report abuse.
A report published on the Refworld Web site, citing figures from various sources, found that 60 percent of men and 70 percent of women in Uganda condone “wife beating” if, for example a woman burns food or refuses sex.
In rural areas cases of domestic violence are often handled among the community, rather than by the police. In most cases this means women are returned home to their partners. More serious cases are passed on to sub-county leaders or the district gender officer, who may encourage police involvement.
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