Uganda's government must do what it can to protect children and women from violence, while the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) must immediately and unconditionally stop abducting, killing and exploiting Uganda's children, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said last Thursday. UNICEF said that in the district of Gulu alone, an estimated 840 abducted girls returned home this year. About thirty 30 percent had already become mothers.

The Refugee Law Project (RLP) has released a report on child protection issues among refugees and nationals in western Uganda. RLP Working Paper 13: Child Protection in the Context of Displacement, funded by Save the Children in Uganda (SCiU), details education, health and child abuse concerns in Ntoroko County, Bundibugyo District.

Building on past research presented in RLP Working Paper 10: Displacement in Bundibugyo District: A Situation Analysis, the new report shows how conflict, displacement and poverty in western Uganda and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have contributed to very difficult living conditions for children in Ntoroko County. While all children face child protection issues in this context, refugee children encounter additional challenges because of language barriers, lack of social support structures and discrimination.

Research findings reveal major barriers to accessing quality education for children in Ntoroko County, particularly for girls and Congolese children. Malaria, cough, worms and cholera are the main health issues facing children, due primarily to poor sanitation and lack of access to clean water. Child abuse, neglect, rape and defilement are widespread in the county, but response from local authorities has been inadequate, contributing to a culture of impunity.

The government has asked the Court of Appeal to reinstate the Justice Julie Sebutinde report on corruption in the Uganda Revenue Authority nullified by court on 16 August. The court reduced the massive report to trash on grounds that the three commissioners did not consent to it. In its second grounds of appeal, the attorney general (AG) said the judge had failed to evaluate the evidence on record, nullified a report without looking at it and misdirected himself by relying on The Monitor and The New Vision newspaper cuttings to make a verdict.

A Ugandan opposition MP has alleged that one of his staff was tortured by state security services. Driver Sam Ongiya, 26, claims he was picked up by armed men and forcefully interrogated about opposition activities. Opposition politicians fear increased harassment as Uganda prepares for democratic elections in 2006. Human rights groups report that torture by state security agencies is common in Uganda but the government maintains it is working to eliminate it.

The Ugandan army announced on Wednesday it had deployed troops along the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) following reports of renewed activity by Ugandan insurgent groups based in eastern Congo. "We have made [a] precautionary deployment," Maj Shaban Bantariza, the army spokesman, told IRIN on Wednesday, "especially in areas we think are possible crossing points for some negative elements."

Health reforms based on market principles have been introduced widely in both developed and developing countries over the past 20 years. In developing countries, international donors have insisted on health reform as a precondition of providing external aid. The reform packages that have been introduced have been strikingly similar across countries as wide apart as Uganda, Bolivia, and Russia. Uganda embarked on market based health reforms in 1994. These reforms have not only failed to improve health services and the health of the population but have arguably been the key factor behind their deterioration. What can we learn from Uganda's experience?

A representative of Uganda's donor countries said on Monday they were increasingly concerned about rampant corruption and the need to embrace a level political playing field in the country. "Development partners are getting increasingly concerned about an apparent lack of political will to fight corruption," the Netherlands Ambassador Yoka Brandt told a two-day meeting of top law and order officials in the capital, Kampala.

He was 8 years old. Just beginning the adventures of his life and enjoying what life offers such as playing ball with his mates. But one day, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels came and abducted him. He became a child soldier. One morning when duty called he responded and went to battle. And the young soldier now promoted to a sergeant, was thrown down by an enormous explosion that shook the ground beneath him. This is one of the stories from a new book by the Association of Volunteers in International Service (AVSI), “Restoring Survivors’ Hope” that unveils the dramatic life of mine survivors in northern Uganda, who have suffered the trauma of mines and war.

In several recent publications, including his recently published book The World’s Banker and an article in Foreign Policy entitled "NGOs: Fighting Poverty, Hurting the Poor," author Sebastian Mallaby identified the Ugandan NGO, National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE), as an example of NGOs that do more harm than good for development. NAPE was instrumental in halting the proposed Bujagali Dam, a project found to be an economically poor deal for the government, as well as having social and environmental costs. In this interview with the International Rivers Network, NAPE's Frank Muramuzi responds to Mallaby.

Ugandan Network of AIDS Service Organizations (UNASO) and Health and Development Networks (HDN) would like to invite you to join the first e-mail based discussion forum on HIV/AIDS in Uganda. This eForum, entitled ‘Partners Uganda’ will be jointly managed and moderated by UNASO and HDN. By joining Partners Uganda, you can send and receive e-mails on HIV/AIDS related issues in the Ugandan context.

Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice (WIGJ) is an international women's NGO that monitors the International Criminal Court (ICC) from a gender perspective. They have just conducted a mission to Uganda following the Ugandan government's referral of the situation in Northern Uganda to the ICC. "In order to effectively perform its role as the gender watch of the ICC, WIGJ's objectives of the mission were broadly to meet with, speak to and consult with women victims and survivors of the conflict, meet with local NGOs and CBOs, meet with the local cultural, religious and district leadership, and ascertain their analysis of the conflict, their assessment of the impact and consequences of the conflict on the lives of people in the region generally and women and girls in particular, and to get an overview of their perspective on the referral of the situation in Northern Uganda to the ICC."

Four Ugandan MPs say they were whipped with bamboo sticks by soldiers as they travelled to meet their constituents to discuss the constitution. The opposition politicians say they intended to discuss contents of a white paper, which proposes to lift the two-term limit on the presidency. Such a move would allow President Yoweri Museveni to run again in 2006.

How many children will be eligible for primary school in the next 10 years? How will HIV/AIDS affect these numbers and the ability of children to attend school? Researchers from the UK University of Liverpool investigate the potential impact of the epidemic on the demand for primary education in Uganda and Tanzania. The impact of HIV/AIDS on enrolment demand in these countries is overshadowed by the effects of increasing poverty, inequality and social disruption. These results do not seem to justify a specific policy focus on children, especially orphans, from HIV/AIDS-affected households. General poverty-alleviating measures in education – like fee reduction or elimination, or a drive to achieve universal primary education – will have a positive effect on all vulnerable groups, including those affected by HIV/AIDS.

A new report by World Vision about the conflict in northern Uganda illustrates the impact that a crisis can have on the spread of HIV/AIDS. The report states that while the spread of HIV/AIDS is down nationally, "prevalence rates are actually on the rise in conflict-affected areas, most notably in Gulu, the largest and most populated of the war-affected northern districts. Rates in this area were almost double the national average."

Hundreds of students from Kampala institutions recently participated in a demonstration against corruption in Uganda. Luzira Secondary School, Good Shepherd Primary School in Ndeeba and Kampala Study Centre were among the institutions. The demonstration was organised by the Anti-Corruption Coalition of Uganda (ACCU).

The Association of Women Engineers, Technicians and Scientists in Uganda (WETSU) is hosting the Gender Advisory Board (GAB) Africa Region Secretariat. The purpose of the Secretariat is to enable the GAB fulfil its mandate in liasing with regional policy makers, researchers, NGOs, UN agencies and all stake holders; and support national governments in implementing the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD) gender recommendations.

The Constitutional Court gave political parties some breathing space this week when it nullified restrictive sections of the Political Parties and Organisations Act (PPOA). Following the judgement, registered parties are now free to open branches at all levels countrywide. They are also at liberty to meet in any part of the country to hold public rallies and contest for power without any hindrance.

Amnesty International has said it is concerned about reported statements by government officials suggesting that crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Northern Uganda would be addressed in traditional reconciliation procedures, rather than in fair trials before independent and impartial courts in accordance with international law and standards. "Uganda cannot 'withdraw' its referral, in January 2004, to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) of the situation in the northern part of the country," the organization declared.

National Union of women with disabilities of Uganda (NUWODU) is an indigenous umbrella organization of women with disabilities that brings together all categories of women with disabilities including the physically, sensory and mentally impaired women purposely to have a strong voice for common cause, particularly to defend, protect the rights and advocate for equal opportunities for women and girls with disabilities.

An anthrax outbreak has killed at least 180 hippos in a national park in south-western Uganda, reports say. The first hippo deaths in the Queen Elizabeth National Park occurred in July, but it has taken months to determine the cause. Scientists say they are struggling to develop a way to diagnose the disease quickly and contain it.