The Global Campaigns and Policy Advisor for OXFAM on HIV/AIDS, Beatrice Were has hailed the government of Uganda for ratifying the protocol on the rights of women in Africa thus becoming the 28th country to ratify the protocol.
This comes hardly two days after Uganda ratified this protocol that aims at promoting women’s rights with specific focus placed on women’s rights in relation to HIV/AIDS and reproductive health.
Ms. Were says she is happy because Uganda signed this protocol because the protocol is one of the most comprehensive tools that women in Uganda can use to push for their rights, especially those ones related to their reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.
She says the protocol could also be used as a tool to advocate for more funds to be directed towards the fight against HIV/AIDS and the improvement of the women’s reproductive health.
She says however she is disappointed that the government has just ratified this protocol when it could have ratified the protocol earlier.
The government of Uganda says it had hesitated to ratify the protocol because of a clause on abortion that the protocol promotes. The Minister of Gender recently said that given that Uganda is a country with a lot of religious background, it has hesitated to have abortion legalized in the country because many Christian and Muslim groups are opposed to it.
By Tiberindwa Zakaria, Ultimate Media
