Early this month, the Principal of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof. Edward Kirumira, co-chaired a two-day workshop on Preventi
ng Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The workshop held on 11th-12 August, 2014 at Kampala Sheraton Hotel was hosted by the Uganda National Academy of Sciences in conjunction with Makerere University and the U.S Institute of Medicine. It drew participants from the fields of public health, nursing, medicine, social sciences, criminal justice and social work. The major objective of the workshop was to explore promising and potential prevention models through a diverse community of researchers and decision makers committed to ending IPV.
Intimate Partner Violence refers to behaviour by an intimate partner or ex-partner that causes physical, sexual or psychological harm, including physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behaviours. A recent analysis by the World Health Organization with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Medical Research Council, based on existing data from over 80 countries, found that globally 35% of women have experienced either physical or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence. Most of the violence is intimate partner violence. Worldwide, almost one third (30%) of all women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical or sexual violence by their intimate partner. Globally as many as 38% of all murders of women are committed by intimate partners.
Addressing participants, the Guest of Honour, Uganda’s former Minister of Health, also Director General of the Uganda AIDS Commission, Hon. Christine Ondoa, said IPV was rapidly increasing in Uganda and that women subject to it are likely to acquire HIV. She said many women remain in abusive relationships and suffer from severe depression because they lack where to go. “Addressing intimate partner violence will help minimize HIV infections and deaths,” she said.
The discussants included Dr Jacquelyn Campbell from the U.S Institute of Medicine, also the workshop co-chair; Prof. Nelson K. Ssewankambo, the Principal of the College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, also President of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences; Hon. Justice David Batema Ndikanbona from the High Court of Uganda; Ms Rose Apondi, a Public Health Specialist with the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Uganda; Dr Nduku Kilonzo, Director of the Kenya National AIDS Control Council; Mr Samuel Likindikoki, the Head of Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania; and Ms Tina Musuya, the Executive Director for Centre for Domestic Violence Prevention.
For details on the workshop, click on the attachments. Also visit www.iom.edu