Northern Uganda: Ker Kwero Acholi Leader Says NO to Gender Violence
At the ceremonial event, His Royal Highness Rwot David Onen Ocana (centre) launched a six-month campaign to put an end to gender-based violence in Acholi and emphasized that women's specific needs in peacebuilding and reconstruction of Northern Uganda should take centre stage. (Photo: UNIFEM)
15 March 2010
On 15 March 2010, at the ceremonial launch of the Acholi Principles on Gender and Sexual Relations — a set of Acholi cultural norms that have been compiled in consultation with Chiefs, traditional leaders, opinion leaders and the Acholi people of Northern Uganda — His Royal Highness, Rwot David Onen Ocana, Paramount Chief of the Acholi people announced: “Today I disassociate myself from anybody who will use culture as a justification for violence against women. Men who violate women are cowards.”
At the launch ceremony His Royal Highness Rwot David Onen Ocana, leader of Ker Kwero Acholi, an organization comprising of the traditional leaders of the Acholi people, emphasized that women’s specific needs in the peacebuilding and reconstruction of Northern Uganda should take centre stage. He announced a six-month campaign on Zero Tolerance to Gender-Based Violence in Acholi, in contribution to the UN Secretary-General’s global campaign, UNiTE to End Violence against Women, to galvanize action and awareness on the issue.
Signing on to the Say NO – UNiTE call to make ending violence against women a top priority, His Royal Highness urged national and district authorities in the region to enact legislation and ordinances that would reinforce the Acholi Principles on Gender and Sexual Relations and to strengthen collaboration between the administration and traditional authorities to ensure women’s full participation and benefit from the recovery programme for Northern Uganda.
While the Acholi Principles are a work in progress and need to be brought in full compliance with domestic and international women’s human rights standards, Meryem Aslan, Regional Programme Director of UNIFEM for East and Horn of Africa, welcomed the process as a significant step towards women’s rights to negotiate, define and shape culture.
The ceremony saw the Chiefs of Alur, Teso and Lango invite partners and stakeholders working in Acholiland to cooperate on ending gender-based violence in their own chiefdoms, with the shared message that violence was not part of their culture. A delegation from the Office of the Prime Minister was present at the ceremony, as well as representatives from UN Agencies, the donor community and civil society organizations.
Acholiland in Northern Uganda comprises five chiefdoms that were the epicenter of the Lord’s Resistance Army’s insurgency against the Government of Uganda. A Cessation of Hostilities Agreement was signed in 2006 and paved the way for peace talks and the return of the population, about 80 percent of whom had lived in camps during the insurgency. Women in the resettling communities face many challenges related to land disputes and high levels of gender-based violence.
