Uganda : Women press for domestic violence bill

"Man forces wife to breastfeed puppies," screams one headline. "Police boss shoots wife," shouts another; and a third: "Man batters wife over meat". These are typical headlines in Uganda's newspapers today. Women daily report surviving different forms of violence in their homes: physical, sexual, emotional or even economic abuse. Uganda has no legislation targeting domestic violence; with a draft bill against domestic violence presently before parliament, women's rights activists are determined to see this corrected. Sixty eight percent of women in Uganda have experienced some form of domestic violence according to the country's 2006 National Demographic and Health Survey. In Uganda, these women - and those worst affected are disproportionately poor, poorly-educated and disadvantaged - are unable to rely on the state to protect them from harm from intimate partners. There is neither a law nor a legal definition of domestic violence. Perpetrators of domestic violence are usually charged with other offences like murder, assault, rape, defilement and child neglect among others... if they are charged at all. Sometimes police or court officials send the women back home saying "that's a family affair, there's no case".