GULU – Next week, members of the Women’s Advocacy Network (WAN) will present a petition to women parliamentarians calling for national policies which will address the needs of war-affected women in the region.
The petition, which will be presented before members of the Uganda Women Parliamentarian’s association (UWOPA), calls for action for the special needs of the children of war-affected women, a national reparations policy, and accountability for perpetrators among others. The petition will take place on the 12th of March 2014 at Parliament in Kampala.
“This is the first time war-affected women from the grassroots will have the opportunity to talk to their representatives in parliament about the issues that really affect them,” said the chairperson of WAN, Evelyn Amony, “We are hoping that the petition will result in real change in the lives women and their children.”
WAN was established in 2011 to advocate for justice, acknowledgement and accountability for gender based violations inflicted upon women during the war in northern Uganda. An initiative of the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP), WAN consists of up to 300 formerly-abducted and other war-affected women. In 2013, a book entitled ‘Adyebo: The Wild Plant’ was published by JRP detailing the experiences of formerly abducted women of different ages and backgrounds, ultimately leading to the formation of WAN.
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Media Contact
Oryem Nyeko, Communications Officer
Email: onyeko@justiceandreconciliation.com
Tel: 0471433008
About the Justice and Reconciliation Project The Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP) promotes locally sensitive and sustainable peace in Africa’s Great Lakes region by focusing on the active involvement of grassroots communities in local-level transitional justice. Formerly a partnership of the Gulu District NGO Forum and the Liu Institute for Global Issues, University of British Columbia, Canada, JRP has played a key role in transitional justice in Uganda since 2005, through seeking to understand and explain the interests, needs, concerns and views of the communities affected by war between the Lord‟s Resistance Army (LRA) and Government of Uganda (GOU). JRP became an independent NGO in 2010 with support from the Royal Norwegian Embassy, Kampala. For more information visit our website at http://www.justiceandreconciliation.com.