The Speaker of Parliament, Rt.Hon. Rebecca Kadaga has tasked Members of Parliament to take the campaign to end child violence to their constituencies.
She said that there is a disturbing silence on all kinds of child violence, which is worrying. “We need to go and speak out; let us make this part of our charge in our constituencies as we handle the other issues,” she said.
Kadaga made these remarks at a Breakfast Meeting aimed at ‘Ending Violence against Children’, at the Kampala Serena Conference Centre, today, Tuesday, 27th June 2017. The meeting was organised by the Uganda Child Rights NGO Network (UCRNN) in conjunction with the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on Children.
The Speaker also blamed parents, especially mothers, for sending children to shops and water places late in the night, which makes them vulnerable to abuse.
“The mothers should get involved in handling these situations in homes. They in most cases keep silent about the vices. We need to wake up and fight against child violence,” Kadaga added.
She also pointed out that urbanisation has led to collapse of communal parenting of children which was helpful in the past in policing children.
“Every parent was a parent of every child; with urbanisation, we don’t know our neighbours and cannot help each other in parenting,” Kadaga said.
The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Forum on Children, Hon. Bernard Atiku said Uganda has been profiled as having extreme cases of child violence.
“We are being profiled for being a pathfinder in the campaign against child violence,” he said.
Olive Lumonya, the Chairperson of the UCRNN, said there is need to end violence against children as part of the efforts to attain the Sustainable Development Goal 16(B).
Parliament will soon hold a special sitting to debate a Motion aimed at creating awareness and ending violence against children.
