The Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, has called on activists to advocate for social justice saying much of the advocacy has been realized in the field of Politics.
“We see a lot of advocacy in politics but I don’t see substantial advocacy about the social life” said Kadaga adding that, “I do not hear people talking about the rights embedded in Article 40 of the Constitution”.
Article 40 of the Constitution provides that “every person has a right to practice his or her profession and to carry on any lawful occupation, trade or business.”
Kadaga made these remarks at the 4th Women’s Forum held at Hotel Africana on Sunday, 07 October 2018, an event that leads up to the annual National Prayer Breakfast.
The Speaker said that much focus has been put on the fundamental rights like that of assembly but with little focus on the way people are living.
“Let us be more sensible to people’s economic and social lives like their right of access to water, health and education,” she added.
Kadaga noted that Uganda still struggles with discrimination especially against people with disability saying, “there is a law almost 10 years old which requires that an employer who employs people with disability takes a tax incentive, but in this country no one is interested in it; many employers don’t want to employ people with disability”.
The First Lady and Minister for Education, Hon Janet Museveni urged women to embrace business enterprises irrespective of the return on investment. She cited her long time experience in voluntarism noting that it has paid off in her current political roles.
“Work well done irrespective of the amount of reward contributes to self-realization and self-worth and gives meaning to the world,” said Janet Museveni.
She called on women leaders to fight corruption at all levels saying, “we will not fight corruption by just words but actions”.
She further challenged women to take advantage of Uganda’s weather and invest in agriculture.
Justice Catherine Bamugemereire, the Head of the Land Probe Committee, called on Parliament to consider legislating on ‘equal pay for equal work’ giving an example that housewives do much more than the prescribed office work and thus a need to reconsider their pay.
The 4th Women Forum was held under the theme; ”All labour brings reward” .
