The National Union of disabled persons in Uganda (NUDIPU) has asked the government to design a program that will specifically provide free legal aid services for Persons with disabilities who are GBV survivors seeking justice in the courts of law.
According to the study by NUDIPU in 2024,90% of the GBV perpetrators were men and boys without disabilities, and 65% of the most affected individuals with GBV were women and girls with disabilities.
While adressing the press conference on 31st March 2025 as the country is winding up the International Women’s month Celebration 2025, under the theme: “Accelerate Action for Gender Equality”, leaders at NUDIPU highlighted Barriers in accessing GBV prevention and response services.
Barriers;
- Attitudinal barriers, such as discrimination and stigma, misconceptions and myths about persons with disabilities by health workers and the community on their sexual rights.
- Communication and information barriers such as shortage of inclusive communication materials, lack of sign language interpreters and other accessible channels of communication for persons with intellectual disabilities such as easy to read materials.
- Physical and environmental barriers e.g., inaccessible physical infrastructure, inaccessible maternal beds, etc.
- Economic barriers, e.g. the high cost of accessing sexual health and reproductive services plus GBV prevention and response services
- Limited Empowerment and exposure of women and girls with disabilities on their sexual rights. for example, majority do not have the knowledge and ability no sexual manipulation which subjects them vulnerability.
- Long distances to reach the nearest health centers coupled with mobility challenges often faced by persons with disabilities.
“As we commemorate this anniversary, there is an urgency to address the persistent barriers women face across the globe, including women and men with disabilities”, said Mr. Ninsiima JohnChris, Director. Programs at NUDIPU
Disability statistics.
The National Population and Housing Census of 2024 estimated a disability prevalence rate of 13.6 % in Uganda while the 2014 National Census Data indicates the preverannce of disabilities is higher among women(15%) than men(10%) and more prevalent in rural areas 15% than Urban areas 12%.
Call for Action
- The Government should integrate Gender Based Violence Prevention and response services in all programmes.
- Women and girls with disabilities should be fully integrated in the existing SHRH services (Sexual and Reproductive Health Services) such as youth friendly corners, Maternal health and newborn baby’s programmes, among others.
- The government should build capacity of service providers focussing on GBV prevention and sexual and reproductive health in disability inclusion.
- The government should design social protection programmes in terms of cash transfers to improve the livelihoods of families of children with disabilities through adoption of the child benefit grant.
- The government should integrate disability inclusion in the GBV existing structures right from grassroot level (LC1 Committees to the district level.)
- Civil Society Organisation should effectively mainstream women and girls with disabilities in the GBV safe spaces created at different levels for support.
- Civil Society Organisations and government to continue building the capacity of women and girls with disabilities on their sexual rights.
- The government should support the existing village savings and loans associations (groups) of persons with disabilities with various programmes such as PDM, emyooga, UWEP,YLP, National disability grants among others to boost their household incomes to mitigate the costs related to accessing SHRH services.
