Uganda court extends protection to male assault victims
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Daily Monitor
Uganda’s Constitutional Court has ruled that Penal Code provisions protecting only women and girls from indecent assault are discriminatory. It ordered the attorney general to submit within 12 months a bill extending this protection to everyone, reports Daily Monitor.
Uganda’s Constitutional Court has extended criminal protection previously provided for women and girls to male victims of indecent assault. A panel of five judges led by Justice Cheborion Barishaki found that sections 115(1) and 115(3) of the Penal Code Act were discriminatory, reports Daily Monitor.
The court invoked Article 274 of the Constitution to order the attorney general to present Parliament, within 12 months, with a bill explicitly protecting all people and defining prohibited conduct. The attorney general acknowledged before the judges that the challenged provisions predated the 1995 Constitution and that the role given to magistrates in investigations and prosecutions undermined judicial independence, according to Daily Monitor.
The ruling comes as several sexual violence cases are being heard by Ugandan courts, including the case against the head of a school in Mpigi, accused of assaulting two teenage girls aged 16 and 17. Proceedings in that case have been referred to the High Court, reports Daily Monitor.
