Access to Justice for rural Women experiencing Gender Based Violence remains a great challenge characterized by a number of factors including inadequate awareness about major women-related laws and court procedure.

In the Kabale district of South western Uganda, majority of women now, and more so rural women, are not aware of legal instruments that protect their rights. In addition, there is no legal representation at community level which has created a big gap between the referral of cases from informal to formal justice services.

During a Press Conference held in Kabale District, Donantus Orikiriza, the Program Manager of GWEFODE said that Economic disempowerment of rural women denies them a right to demand fair justice whenever they face violence for instance women victims of violence and other abuses have to travel long distances to the district in order to seek redress and such Women are unstable economically thus find difficulties in attending repeated court sessions. The rule of law is meaningless for rural women living in poverty and experiencing Gender Based Violence without effective access to justice, which is a human right in itself, and essential for tackling poverty.

The Government of Uganda is therefore called upon to ensure that poverty is never a barrier to enjoying the benefits of the rule of law, by making forward-looking, specific pledges to improve access to justice by the poorest and most marginalized members of society. Concrete actions must be taken to ensure that all individuals are empowered to claim their rights, demand effective remedies and accountability, she highlighted. Without this, we are left with a two-tier rule of law: a reality for the privileged, but only rhetorical for the poor and excluded. There is need to empower women and girls to know and claim their rights in the face of violation of these rights and to know how to protect themselves from such violations.