The Uganda Women’s Situation Room: Peaceful Elections are Possible
Uganda is set to hold presidential and general elections on February 18, 2016
and as part of efforts towards peaceful elections, the women of Uganda have
established a Women’s Situation Room; an early response and conflict
mitigation mechanism that directly engages women and youths to play active
roles in preventing and mitigating electoral violence in line with UNSCR 1325
that calls for active participation in peace building and conflict prevention.
The Women’s Situation Room (WSR) was first initiated in Liberia by the Angie
Brooks International Centre (ABIC ) during the Liberian Elections in October
and November 2011. It started amid growing awareness that violence had
become a norm of African elections and the need to ensure that women play
key roles in ensuring peaceful elections. Since its adoption, it has been
recognized as a best practice by the African Union and has been successfully
replicated in Senegal (2012), Sierra Leone (2012), Kenya (2013), Malawi (2014)
and Nigeria (2014).
In Uganda, the Women’s Situation Room is spearheaded by three organization
namely Isis-WICCE, Forum for Women in Democracy and the Institute for
Social Transformation and will be working in 15 districts of Uganda where
women and youth groups have been trained to document and share incidences
of electoral violence.
It also has a team of selected Eminent Women from Uganda and other African
countries, who are involved in advocacy for peace, observation of the polling
process and mediation with political and legal experts. The Eminent women
will be responding to electoral violence incidents instantly and contacting the
right authorities to resolve matters in a timely manner. The physical Women’s
Situation Room with a fully functioning call centre will open from the 15th to
the 20th February 2016 to receive real time reports and information on
incidents from the trained election observers in the districts.
The Women Situation Room has already started nationwide calls for peace
through both mainstream and social media as well as holding consultations
and meetings for peaceful elections with various key stakeholders in the
country. For more information about the WSR visit the following sites,
Website: www.wsr-uganda.org
Facebook: WSRUganda
Twitter: WSRUganda