Domestic violence still widespread in Uganda
Uganda Women Network has expressed fears that the Local Council Courts may not be able to appropriately handle cases of domestic violence if the government does not come out to supervise such courts to ensure that they offer the necessary justice in relation to domestic violence.
The newly enacted Domestic Violence Act empowers LC courts to handle domestic violence cases though there have always been fears even before the enactment of the law over the ability of these courts to handle such cases.
UWONET in its information pack on the newly enacted law says since the bill seeks to uphold the protection of human rights that may be violated through domestic violence it is incumbent upon the government to ensure that the LC courts help in achieving this end in their decisions on domestic violence cases rather than impeding the achievement of this end.
UWONET has also appealed to the government to ensure that the bottlenecks in the formal justice system are dealt with such that it can ensure that cases of domestic violence are expeditiously handled to enable the victims of this vice easily get justice.
The Domestic Violence Act requires both the Local Council Courts and the Formal Courts to treat all cases of domestic violence with urgency and requires the courts to have heard such cases within 48 hours.