RIGHTS-UGANDA: Domestic Violence linked to HIV/AIDS

By Evelyn Kiapi Reprint | | Print |

Evelyn Kiapi Matsamura

KAMPALA, Sep 2 2003 (IPS) - In a society where women are still valued as property, and do not have equal decision-making powers and status within the family, the existence of rape and brutal attacks on them by their spouses has become a stimulant for HIV/AIDS infections.

In a society where women are still valued as property, and do not have equal decision-making powers and status within the family, the existence of rape and brutal attacks on them by their spouses has become a stimulant for HIV/AIDS infections.

And in a country where a specific domestic violence law has not been enacted and marital rape is not considered a crime, the practice has not only crumpled on the rights of Ugandan women, but also become a barrier in the fight against the disease.

The Government’s failure to protect women from domestic violence and discrimination has increased women’s risk of contracting HIV it has been established.

Concerns have now been raised in a Human Rights Report released mid August this year. It stated a co-relation between domestic violence (sometimes characterised by marital rape) and spread of HIV/AIDS.

The 77-page study report "Just Die Quietly: Domestic Violence and Women’s Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS in Uganda" documents the wide existence of rape and brutal attacks on women by their husbands and its implication on the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The study sampled 120 women living with HIV/AIDS and showed that many of the women are particularly vulnerable to being infected with the disease because they lack the authority to refuse sex with their husbands or to insist on the use of condoms.

The study found that 41 percent of women with the HIV virus in Uganda have suffered some form of domestic violence.

The report also quoted a Police Superintendent of the Child and Family Protection Unit, Hellen Alyek, as saying complaints of Domestic Violence rose from 495 in 2001 to 1009 in 2002. She attributed the rise to lack of training on women’s rights as well as increased levels of poverty, which is making women vulnerable.

"My husband hated to use a condom. He never allowed it. He used to beat me when I refused to sleep with him." one Sarah Kisaakye narrated (in the report).

"Sometimes I did not want sex. He forced me even before we tested (for HIV) he was using force. After testing, he would force me to have sex. He said ‘why bother, we are already victims’" Esther Nanono says.

And this is not the first report in relation to the issue. An American study released early this year also showed that about one in three woman living in rural Uganda experiences verbal or physical threats from their partners.

The study, conducted by John Hopkins University, highlighted the links between domestic violence and the consumption of alcohol, as well as a partner’s perceived risk of HIV infection. The survey was done in Rakai District, an area at the centre of the country’s HIV/AIDS epidemic.

"Fear of HIV infection may lead women to avoid sex with their partner, which in turn may precipitate threats of violence or physical abuse," the John Hopkins report said. But this trend has created the observation that current programmes to prevent the spread of HIV (like infidelity, abstinence and condom use) could be overlooking domestic violence as a key behavioural dimension of HIV transmission.

While states are obliged to guarantee that victims of domestic violence have recourse to laws that protect them and that perpetrators punished, in Uganda, Domestic Violence is considered a ‘bedroom affair.’ Even the police would not give audience to it.

"Men in Uganda control their wives bodies, their labour and their productive capacity. Culture dictates that once a man has called upon his in-laws, and all the formalities have been agreed upon, his wife should not return to her parents home, a bad marriage notwithstanding," the report says.

Uganda has ratified international and regional human rights treaties providing for women’s rights to protection against violence and health, but it holds no law to protect them from domestic violence. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, (the CEDAW Committee) established that violence against women violates the principle of non-discrimination and equality enumerated in the Convention.

Article 16(1) of CEDAW provides, "States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations."

International human rights law also recognises state accountability for abuses by private actors and requires states to show due diligence in preventing and responding to human rights violations, and the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women calls on States to exercise due diligence to investigate and punish acts of violence against women, whether committed by the State or by private actors.

But still, domestic violence still goes unpunished by the Ugandan justice system, with many women continuing to ‘die quietly.’

In many societies in Uganda, wife battery that does not result in serious injury is in many instances tolerated and considered a normal part of marriage. Sometimes, a woman who never gets battered by her husband thinks he actually does not love her.

Currently, the Ugandan marriage and divorce laws also do not favour women and contravene constitutional provisions providing for fairness and equal rights.

In 1999, the government admitted: "[I] n the laws of marriage, divorce or inheritance, there is no gender equity or fairness to date. The woman is always in a subordinate position. This position is aggravated by the requirement in most marriages that bride price be paid to the parents of the female so that the family and clan of the husband tend to take the woman as property."

This has inhibited women’s control over sexual matters in marriage. For over a decade now, Uganda Women’s advocacy groups have been lobbying for the Domestic Relations Bill (DRB), a law that would see victims of Domestic Violence seek justice and the culprits punished. Since then, the bill has been shelved in Parliament, waiting to be tabled.

The Co-ordinator for Uganda Women’s Network (UWONET) women’s activist group, Jackie Asiimwe-Mwesige, has shown disappointment at the speed at which the Bill is being looked in to. While she looks at it as one hope, policy-makers seem reluctant about it.

Last year, President Yoweri Museveni said he had intentionally delayed the DRB just so he could include a ‘few more important clauses’ that he claimed were vital in family relationships.

"And while we wait, women continue to die. We need to make more noise. They may not hear us but we shall not give up the fight," Asiimwe-Mwesige says. "We are hiding our heads in the sun and while we do that, more women lose lives. We should not be raping our spouses," she says.

As part of the lobbying, she says Uganda women will participate in the annual ’16 days of activism against gender violence’ (between Nov 25- Dec 10) as one of the ways to get parliament to give the bill some attention.

In association with the Uganda Women Parliamentarian’s Association as well as the Ministry of Gender, Culture and Social Development, Assimwe-Mwesige hopes for quick redress. "We cannot talk about eradicating poverty when women are dying. They are a backbone in society," she says.

But just like Hellen Alyek says, many women do not know their rights and believe in submissiveness to their death. Even with some sensitisation, they still find it difficult to negotiate condom use. "I cannot disobey my husband. I was taught by my auntie’s not to. If I denied him sex, he would look for it somewhere else and I do not want that," says Mercy Nansikombi a 28 year-old trader in Kampala.

"My husband hates the condom. ‘How can I use a condom with my wife? She is not a prostitute’, he says when I insist. My hands are tied. I cannot disobey him," she says.

And for the men, they do not admit that marital rape exists and believe that a spouse should adhere, no matter what. "Even the bible teaches that women should be submissive to men," says Alfred Matovu.

Uganda has been one of the African countries at the forefront in the fight against the disease with a current prevalence of 6 percent from 30 percent two decades ago. But by 2001, an estimated 2.2 million people had been infected with HIV and about 800,000 Ugandans had died. UNAIDS estimates that out of a population of 24 million, 1 million Ugandans are living with HIV/AIDS. Many of these are possible victims of Domestic Violence.