Her Justice – Solving Both Glaring and Hidden Issues

Her Justice – Solving Both Glaring and Hidden Issues

In a country where 65% of women report experiencing domestic violence, the woman in the large house with the locked car and the empty bank account, the woman facing sexual harassment in the workplace or the young girl in a high-end school exposed to defilement—are just as much victims yet often invisible to the justice system.

As Uganda marked International Women’s Day 2026 with the theme of “scaling up investment to accelerate access to justice,” the gap between law on the books and justice in practice remains the central challenge.

The Legal Architecture: Strong on Paper, Uneven in Practice

Uganda’s legal framework for protecting women and girls has expanded significantly over the past fifteen years. The Domestic Violence Act of 2010 criminalized physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse within the home. The Succession (Amendment) Act of 2022, following a Constitutional Court ruling that struck down discriminatory inheritance provisions, now recognizes both male and female intestates and protects the residential holding for surviving spouses and children. The Anti-FGM Act and employment amendments further round out the statutory protections .

The problem is not the absence of law. It is the distance between statute and enforcement. In 2020, of 17,664 domestic violence cases reported to police, only 1,359 were prosecuted and 400 resulted in conviction—a conviction rate of 2.2%. The Domestic Violence Act has been on the books for over a decade, yet domestic violence-related homicides nearly tripled between 2010 and 2020. Parliament itself has acknowledged the gap and publicly urged the Ministry of Gender to popularize the Succession Amendment Act because “majority of the people do not know” what it contains.

For women with resources, the barriers are different but no less real. When an affluent Kampala woman who had endured years of coercive financial control killed her husband, the court heard about the “charmed life” of the couple—not the fact that she had no access to money, that the car she drove only had fuel when her husband sent someone to pay for it. Economic abuse within marriage remains poorly recognized by courts, even as the law nominally covers it.

The woman who appears privileged on paper may find that her class buys her a nicer prison, not better protection or defense.

The Vulnerable Subject: Where the System Does Work—Sometimes

It would be dishonest to suggest that vulnerability does not matter. It matters enormously. In Uganda’s refugee settlements, which host Africa’s largest refugee population at over 2 million, 98% of recorded GBV survivors are women and girls. Early marriage and sexual violence are the dominant risks for adolescent girls, while economically vulnerable women face sexual exploitation and survival sex. Funding cuts have made these risks worse: protection funding for the Uganda refugee response fell 68% year-on-year in the 2025 cycle, and only 14% of UNHCR’s 2026 Uganda funding requirement was secured by March.

For women in these settings, the justice system is often the last thing they encounter—if they encounter it at all. The first need is survival: post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV must be administered within 72 hours, a window many survivors miss because of distance, stigma, and fear of identification. Services exist but are unevenly distributed and over-reliant on psychosocial support relative to health, legal, and safety responses.

Where a Victimized Woman Can Find Timely Help

For any woman in Uganda—regardless of class, location, or status—the first and most reliable entry point is Sauti 116, the national child and women protection helpline. Operated by the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development with support from UNICEF, UNFPA, UN Women, and the Spotlight Initiative, the line operates 24 hours a day, is toll-free, and receives an average of over 1,000 calls daily. Counsellors speak at least 26 of Uganda’s 56 local dialects, and the service has expanded to include a chatbot accessible via basic feature phones for those who cannot speak safely. Cases are triaged, logged, and escalated to social workers, hospitals, or police at the district level as needed.

For survivors who can reach formal systems, recent investments have improved outcomes. Specialized Gender-Based Violence court sessions have resolved over 4,500 cases and raised conviction rates from 20% to 80% in the sessions where they operate. The Judiciary, working with the Uganda Law Reform Commission and the International Association of Women Judges, has also produced a Succession Resource Book to guide judicial officers on the gender dimensions of inheritance law.

But these gains are fragile. Sauti 116 itself faces an uncertain future: each case costs nearly 1 million Ugandan shillings to process, and global aid cuts have created what the call center’s manager describes as fear and uncertainty among staff. The specialized court sessions, while effective, are not available everywhere. And the 2.2% conviction rate for domestic violence outside those sessions tells its own story.

Diving Deeper

I. Economic/Financial Violence Within Households: The Most Hidden form of “Violence”

The Ugandan Domestic Violence Act (2010) explicitly categorizes “economic abuse” as a form of domestic violence, with a definition that is actually quite broad. According to the original text of the Act, economic abuse includes: deprivation of all or part of the economic or financial resources to which the victim is entitled by law or custom (including household necessities, jointly or individually owned property, rent and maintenance payments); misappropriation of household property, transfer of assets (whether movable or immovable, shares, securities, bonds, or property in which the victim has an interest); and prohibiting or restricting the victim’s access to resources or facilities they are entitled to use (including the shared residence). The law also stipulates that consent is not a defense, and the court may order the offender to pay compensation to the victim. However, the common “justice pitfalls” in reality are:

First, economic abuse is extremely difficult to identify and prove. Unlike physical injuries, economic control—such as controlling bank cards, refusing to provide living expenses, transferring property to relatives—often lacks visible evidence. Courts and police frequently treat these acts as “family financial disputes” rather than domestic violence. In practice, even economically well-off women may find their property controlled by their spouses, yet the justice system struggles to recognize this as “violence.”

Second, local council courts may “mediate” rather than “adjudicate.” The Domestic Violence Act allows victims to file complaints with local council courts (LC Courts). While this lowers the threshold for recourse, local council members often lack training in gender-based violence and tend to resolve matters through “reconciliation,” which can result in economic abuse being glossed over as “family harmony.”

Third, compensation is difficult to enforce. Even when courts order compensation, most perpetrators are ordinary peasants without property to their name; compensation orders often amount to empty paper. This means that while economic abuse victims “win the case,” they may gain no actual financial relief.

Pathways to Recourse: Victims may apply to a magistrate’s court for a Protection Order, prohibiting the perpetrator from further economic control or property misappropriation. The High Court has confirmed that appeals against protection orders can be made as of right, without requiring leave. Additionally, the court may order the perpetrator to pay compensation under Section 4(3) of the Domestic Violence Act. For women unable to afford a lawyer, paralegals play a crucial role: they can assist victims in reporting to police, accompany them to the Family and Child Protection Unit, and follow up on case progress.

II. Economic Injustice in Marketplaces and Communities: Structural Exclusion and Harassment

For women in the informal sector, economic injustice is not confined to households but extends to the marketplace—where they earn their livelihoods.

A 2025 study by the SIHA Network across nine markets in Arua revealed stark data: 62% of female market vendors had experienced physical or psychological harassment, 17.8% had faced sexually suggestive gestures, and 11.8% had received sexually explicit comments. However, only 9% of cases were reported, with the vast majority of women fearing retaliation or distrusting authorities. Beyond harassment, 88% of vendors lacked protective stalls, sanitary facilities were severely inadequate, and women with disabilities were almost entirely excluded.

More covert economic injustice lies in financial exclusion. The report notes that many female vendors can only rely on high-interest informal credit because public financing schemes such as the Parish Development Model (PDM) and Emyooga are riddled with bureaucratic barriers and do not fit the realities of market women’s lives. Female vendors have also pointed out that the lack of childcare facilities in markets forces women to bring their children to work, even leading to tragic incidents: in Kampala’s Nakawa market, a vendor left her six-month-old baby with a babysitter who followed her to the market, and both were abducted by KCCA enforcement officers; the baby died three days after being found due to poor hygiene and insecurity.

Prevention and Improvement Directions: The SIHA report recommends that local governments upgrade market drainage, lighting, toilets, and stalls, establish violence reporting desks, and ensure women’s representation in market governance. National ministries should enforce gender and labor laws in informal markets, expand access to healthcare and legal aid, and reform financing schemes to be more gender-responsive.

III. Customary Law and Land Inheritance: The Deepest Entanglement of Tradition and Legislation

For many Ugandan women, the most valuable “economic asset” is land—and the greatest injustice occurs precisely here.

In the Acholi region of northern Uganda, although national law recognizes women’s equal rights to land, customary land management systems still prevent women from claiming these rights in practice. Research indicates that colonial legacies, historical conflicts, and entrenched patriarchal norms have distorted customary practices, rendering women’s legitimate land claims nearly impossible to realize within local systems. Simultaneously, weak legal infrastructure and lack of awareness among women make national law equally difficult to access. Women are caught in a dilemma between “customary law” and “statutory law,” unable to fully exercise rights under either system.

Widows face even more direct exploitation. Reports indicate that village elders and chiefs sometimes collude to obstruct widows’ inheritance claims, with women even needing to bribe chiefs to obtain a favorable ruling. Although the Succession (Amendment) Act strengthened the inheritance rights of surviving spouses and children, awareness remains extremely low, and many women are unaware of the existence of this law.

Responses and Recommendations: Policy recommendations include promoting joint titling or registration (Joint Titling) to acknowledge women’s contributions to household economies (often in the form of labor rather than cash), and to provide protection in the event of marriage breakdown or spousal death. Certificates of Customary Ownership (CCOs) should automatically list spouses and daughters, and be recognized as collateral acceptable to financial institutions, thereby transforming land rights into assets that can be used for borrowing. At the community level, sensitizing traditional leaders and conducting awareness campaigns in local languages are necessary conditions for changing norms.

IV. Women in the Formal Sector: Legal Protection and Enforcement Gaps

Provisions Exist on Paper i.e. the Employment Act (2006) has clear provisions: Section 7 prohibits all forms of sexual harassment and requires employers to take measures to prevent and handle complaints; Section 6 prohibits gender-based discrimination; Sections 12 to 14 authorize labor officers to investigate and prosecute employee complaints. The Employment (Sexual Harassment) Regulations further detail the complaint handling procedures, requiring employers with more than 25 employees to designate a gender-sensitive person responsible for handling sexual harassment complaints and establish a four-member sexual harassment committee. The Leadership Code (Amendment) Act 2017 additionally provides protection against sexual harassment for women in public sector workplaces. What commonly stands out in this women-group is:

First, small and medium-sized enterprises fall completely outside regulatory reach. The Regulations explicitly apply only to employers with more than 25 employees. Uganda’s economy is dominated by small and micro enterprises—42.4% of women-led businesses have no employees at all, and 43.5% have only 1 to 2 employees. This means that the vast majority of women working in small businesses cannot invoke the statutory sexual harassment complaint procedure.

Second, victims are unwilling to report. Research indicates that Ugandan women who experience workplace sexual harassment often choose silence because they do not believe reporting will lead to any outcome, and remedies take too long to obtain. The power structure inherent in sexual harassment—perpetrators are often supervisors or employers—makes victims worry about retaliation or job loss.

Third, female entrepreneurs face structural financial exclusion rather than legal discrimination. The 2024 Ugandan Entrepreneurship Status Survey shows that the National Entrepreneurship Index for women-led businesses is 56%, slightly lower than the national average of 57%. Only 5.7% of women business owners have computers, compared to 14.2% of men; 57% of women do not own mobile phones, compared to 49% of men. Women-led businesses rely on personal savings for startup capital at a rate of 92.9%, with only 11.5% able to obtain bank loans. The root cause is that women’s asset ownership is far lower than men’s, directly affecting their ability to use assets as loan collateral.

Response Pathways and Remedies: For sexual harassment, victims may report to the Labour Officer, who has the authority to investigate and prosecute. If the employer has more than 25 employees but has not established a complaint mechanism, the victim may file a complaint with the Labour Commissioner. Dissatisfied with the Labour Officer’s decision, appeal may be made to the Industrial Court within 21 days. For female entrepreneurs, the most practical support at present comes from collective savings groups and mutual aid organizations, rather than formal legal remedies—the informal savings and loan mechanisms of these groups partially fill the gap left by formal finance. Policy-level recommendations include: incorporating joint title registration into the formal financial system to enable women to use land rights as collateral; simplifying the business registration process and reducing bribery demands specifically targeting women.

V. Common “Economic Justice Pitfalls” Summary

Synthesizing the above 4 domains, several cross-cutting pitfalls can be identified:

The “Reconciliation Trap”: Whether in local council courts or communities, economic abuse and land disputes are often resolved through “family mediation,” where the result is typically that women are persuaded to “compromise” rather than obtain enforceable rights.

The Gap Between Legislation and Awareness: The Succession (Amendment) Act, the Domestic Violence Act’s economic abuse provisions, and joint titling policies exist on paper, but the vast majority of women—especially rural women and market vendors—do not know these rights exist. A parliamentarian himself admitted that “most people do not know” what the Succession Amendment Act contains.

Weak Enforcement Capacity: The conviction rate for domestic violence cases is extremely low (only 2.2% in 2020), and compensation orders are difficult to enforce. Specialized gender-based violence courts have increased conviction rates to 80%, but such courts are not available in all regions.

Lack of Witness Protection: Uganda lacks a comprehensive witness protection law, and prosecutors can only make ad hoc arrangements when victims or witnesses face threats. This causes many victims to withdraw from proceedings due to fear of retaliation.

VI. Girls: The Dual Injustice of Sexual Violence and Menstrual Poverty

Sexual Violence: Data and Systematic Cover-up

The 2024 Ugandan police crime report shows that 14,425 sexual offenses were recorded throughout the year, of which 12,317 were defilement cases, with 12,009 female minor victims. Among the victims, 1,447 were aged 0 to 8, 2,514 were aged 9 to 14, and 8,021 were aged 15 to 17. Cases perpetrated by teachers are not uncommon—in 2023, 142 primary school students and 69 secondary school students were defiled by teachers.

Yet conviction rates are extremely low. Of the 6,584 cases brought to court in 2024, only 749 resulted in convictions, 454 were dismissed, and 5,318 remain pending. The IWPR investigation revealed more specific obstacles: teachers use threats to intimidate victims (“I’ll kill your parents”), schools pressure victims’ families to withdraw complaints to protect their reputations, police have registered defilement cases under false case numbers as “theft,” and hospitals have failed to provide post-exposure prophylaxis to victims. In 2022, the Uganda National Association of Women Judges identified “lack of technical capacity” among police officers as a key barrier to obtaining justice in defilement cases.

Parliament has recognized the legislative gaps. A special committee investigation found that existing education laws lack provisions to revoke the licenses of teachers who commit sexual misconduct and lack a comprehensive sexual offenses law. Parliament has approved recommendations to amend the Education Act to prohibit any sexual relationship between teachers and students (whether “consensual” or not), impose mandatory reporting obligations, and allow disciplinary proceedings to proceed independently of criminal proceedings. However, these amendments have not yet been implemented.

Menstrual Poverty: An Invisible Barrier Without Legal Remedies

An audit report shows that 64% of female students in Uganda frequently miss school due to lack of menstrual products and inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities. UNFPA notes that nearly one-fifth of adolescent girls are absent from school due to menstruation and menstrual poverty. UNFPA Deputy Representative in Uganda has explicitly stated: “These are not merely isolated service delivery gaps. They are systemic and structural constraints.”

This problem has no direct “legal remedy”—no court can order the government to provide free sanitary pads to every school girl. But policy pathways exist: Uganda has zero-rated taxes on menstrual products, and the Uganda National Bureau of Standards is participating in the formulation of international standards for menstrual products. However, participants at the symposium acknowledged that affordability remains a stubborn obstacle, and emerging tax pressures may reverse the gains from zero-rating.

The most viable entry point at the school level is to incorporate menstrual health management into school infrastructure standards—requiring all schools to provide separate toilets, water, and disposal facilities—rather than expecting girls to resolve this structural problem individually.

Prevention and Recourse for Girls: If a school girl or minor experiences sexual violence, the first step is to contact the Sauti 116 helpline or the nearest police Family and Child Protection Unit. Critically, medical evidence must be obtained within 72 hours (post-exposure prophylaxis, injury documentation), which is the most easily destroyed link in the evidence chain in defilement cases. The victim’s family should simultaneously report to the school’s management body and the Ministry of Education—Parliament’s recommendations explicitly require schools to fulfill mandatory reporting obligations, and failure to report should result in penalties. For menstrual health issues, no individual remedy exists; what is needed is for school management committees and parent-teacher associations to collectively advocate for the inclusion of “menstrual-friendly school” standards in school budgets and infrastructure planning.

VII. Practical Pathways to Recourse for Victimized Women

If a woman or girl is experiencing abuse or other forms of gender-based injustice, the following pathways can be attempted in sequence:

1. Immediate Safety and Reporting: Call the Sauti 116 helpline (toll-free, 24 hours, multilingual). Alternatively, go directly to the nearest police station’s Family and Child Protection Unit. Paralegals can accompany and assist throughout.
2. Apply for a Protection Order: File an application with a magistrate’s court to prohibit further violence or economic control. This is a relatively expedited procedure under the Domestic Violence Act.
3. Seek Medical and Psychosocial Support: Public hospitals and some NGOs provide post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), injury documentation, and counseling. Medical records are important evidence for legal proceedings.
4. Land and Inheritance Disputes: If land or inheritance rights are infringed, seek support from land rights information centers or paralegal networks. In Acholi and other regions, some women have successfully secured de facto land use rights through “customary discourse” strategies—using seemingly traditional language to subtly dismantle patriarchal structures.
5. Market Vendors: Contact organizations such as the SIHA Network to learn about advocacy resources and reporting mechanisms for female vendors. Market vendor associations are also pushing for the establishment of reporting desks.
6. Formal Workplace: For sexual harassment and gender-biased discrimination, victims may report to the Labour Officer, who has the authority to investigate and prosecute and appeal may be made to the Industrial Court within 21 days if Dissatisfied with the Labour Officer’s decision. For female entrepreneurs facing barriers to business finance, the most practical support at present comes from collective savings groups and mutual aid organizations, rather than formal legal remedies—the informal savings and loan mechanisms of these groups partially fill the gap left by formal finance.
7. Girls: If a girl experiences sexual violence, the first step is to contact the Sauti 116 helpline or the nearest police Family and Child Protection Unit. If the perpetrator is a school-staff, the victim’s family should simultaneously report to the school’s management body.

The Outlook: Justice as an Investment, Not a Charity

The theme of International Women’s Day 2026 in Uganda—”Scaling up Investment to Accelerate Access to Justice”—is precisely right, provided “investment” is understood broadly. It means funding the helplines and court sessions that work. It means training police and prosecutors to recognize economic abuse and coercive control, not just visible injuries. It means ensuring that a woman’s ability to access justice does not depend on whether she fits the profile of a “deserving victim.”

The 2026 statistics are genuinely encouraging: 44 women in Cabinet, 51% of judges are women, and 17 women serve as Permanent Secretaries. Women now account for 30% of landowners registered under the new online system. These are not trivial achievements. But representation at the top does not automatically translate into justice at the bottom—or in the middle, where the woman with the locked car and empty bank account still waits for a system that sees her.

The outlook, then, is mixed but not hopeless. Uganda has the laws, the institutions, and the political rhetoric. What it needs now is the sustained investment—financial and cultural—to make the promise real for every woman and girl, whether she comes from a refugee settlement, rural area or a suburb.

Ultimately, the most critical insight is: The legal tools exist, but justice does not automatically arrive. It requires women to know their rights, requires intermediaries (paralegals, market organizations, community volunteers) to bridge the gap between law and practice, and requires the state to invest real resources in enforcement mechanisms around the real conditions of the most difficult-to-reach groups—not merely pass laws and consider the task complete.