The Honorary Counsel of Liberia to Uganda, Thelma Awori, who is also a Ugandan professor, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, and feminist has requested Parliament to enact the Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill, which will see women defenders have a violent free society.

Awori, who was speaking at an event to commemorate International Women Defenders Day on November 29, 2023, at her residence in Ntinda, Kampala, condemned acts of violation against women defenders.

She said that the bill will ensure that the work of all human rights defenders in Uganda is recognized and protected, and she urged women not to back down in their quest for a violence-free society.

“Women human rights defenders are facing numerous challenges, including attacks that result in injuries, restrictions within the civic space, and the closure of their organizations, among others,” Awori said.

“The rate at which violence is occurring across the world calls for concerted efforts that must include human rights defenders,” she added.

Dorothy Kiyai, the protection officer at the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders Uganda, said that it was because of the many challenges women human rights defenders face that they decided to set up and support them.

The work of women human rights defenders and the challenges they face were recognized by a United Nations (UN) resolution in 2013, which called for specific protection for women human rights defenders.

The commemoration, which was organized by the National Coalition of Human Rights Defenders in Uganda, sought to highlight the challenges that need to be addressed by government bodies.