By Juma Nsubuga
The chairperson of National Council for Women in Uganda Hajjat Faridah Kibowa has called upon all in the mining sector in great lakes region to immediately establish and enforce stringent codes of conduct that explicitly condemn any form of harassment or violence against women.
Kibowa made this call at the sensitization initiative of regional engagement of mining Actors in promoting positive masculinity as a preventive and responsive mechanism to address suppression of gender based violence in the great lakes region mining sector during the 16 Day of activism at speak resort hotel in Munyonyo.
She noted that establishing codes to condemn any form of harassment against women will provide training for employees to creat safe reporting mechanism and ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable for their actions.
“As the national council for women in Uganda and in the great lakes region,we commit ourselves to supporting and facilitating these efforts” she said adding that ” we will also advocate for the inclusion of gender-sensitive policies in national and regional mining frameworks”.
Kibowa who represented the president of ICGLR Hon Sabine Ntakarutimana at the conference also said that they (women leaders in ICGLR) will collaborate with international partners to share best practices and resources that can aid in the prevention and response to sexual gender based violence (SGBV) in the mining sector.
She further stressed that addressing issues of sexual gender based violence requires a comprehensive strategy that involves all stakeholders particularly men and boys by promoting men to become allies in the fight against sexual gender based violence.
“We are privileged to work closely with the international conference on the great lakes region through its regional training facility to work on issues against women” she added.
The international conference of great lakes region comprises 12 member states including. Uganda, Angola, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Central Africa Republic, DRC, Tanzania, Zambia and South Sudan among others.
