Amongst the growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Uganda are an estimated 50,000 people known as “night commuters” – most of them children, adolescents and women – who flee their homes or IDP camps each night for town centers seeking safety from attack by the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army(LRA). These night commuters represent only a small portion of the IDP population, but the situation dramatically illustrates how inadequate protection has led to increasing violence against children and adolescents.

A 2003 study on commercial sex exploitation of children, carried out by Hope Case Foundation and Uganda Youth Development Link, reveals that child commercial sex is on the increase worldwide, with about 1.8 million children being exploited. In Uganda, many students and school dropouts engaged in commercial sex. A study conducted in the districts of Mbale, Busia, Kabarole and Lira shows that, of the 728 children (90.3% of these girls and 9.3% boys) interviewed, only 35% still go to school while 70% of the children don't stay with their parents. Of the 728, 95% are paid money for sex, 16% get food, while 11% get free entry to discotheques as payment for sex.

Belgium has offered to construct a boarding primary school in northern Uganda for former child abductees of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) who are currently receiving counselling to overcome the trauma suffered in captivity. Announcing the initiative, the Belgian Ambassador to Uganda, Koenraad Adam, stated that his government had earmarked US $ 2.4 million for the project which would be sited in Gulu, 360 km north of Kampala.

Uganda has been ranked as the eighth country with the worst maternal death rate in the world. The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) country representative, James Kuriah, said Uganda loses 505 women out of every 100,000 live births. Kuriah told New Vision: "This maternal mortality rate has earned Uganda position number eight, compared to other countries that have limited social services due to civil conflict, despite the fact that it has achieved remarkable socio-economic progress over the last 17 years.”

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has sent a mission to northwestern Uganda to assess the situation following an influx of Congolese refugees fleeing renewed fighting in the northeastern district of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Hundreds of the refugees were reported to have crossed into the Ugandan district of Nebbi, 500 km northwest of the capital, Kampala. The Kampala office of the UNHCR said it was waiting for the mission's final report on the situation along the northwestern border with the DRC.

Two years after Joseph Kony's Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels launched massive attacks on Lira district, the schools are reeling from the huge impact of the war. With more than a half of the 200,000-strong UPE pupils and secondary schools in the district displaced from their rural bases to urban areas, more children are increasingly dropping out of school.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Uganda has congratulated the Government of Uganda on formally launching a national database that provides wide-ranging and updated information on social development in the country, including those directly linked to the lives of children and women. UgandaInfo, unveiled in an official ceremony in Kampala, was developed by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics, the Office of the Prime Minister and line ministries, with UNICEF support and in consultation with UN and NGO partners. The database features more than 200 key indicators in education, health, HIV/AIDS and other sectors.

Centre for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP)

This position is open to male candidates only. The holders responsibilities will include the design, implementation and monitoring of the organisation's new program focused on men and domestic violence.

Centre for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP)

The position holder will be responsible, amongst other duties, for the development and implementation of all advocacy activities and for the raising of awareness within the stakeholder community of human rights and domestic violence.

Centre for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP)

The Officer will be responsible, amongst other duties, for the design and implementation of all capacity building activities, the training of trainers courses and for working closely with stakeholders in the community to address the issue of domestic violence.

UNICEF

The Senior Project Officer will be responsible for the development, design, implementation and management of the programme for HIV/AIDS within UNICEF's Country Programme.

Increased international attention has yet to produce signs of an end to one of the world’s most brutal humanitarian crises, which has displaced 1.6 million people in northern Uganda. The rebellion by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been going on for 18 years. Their political objectives are unclear, but they seem bent on dismantling the camps where most of the internally displaced people (IDPs) live, seeing their inhabitants as tacit supporters of President Yoweri Museveni’s government. In what was the most vicious atrocity in nine years, the LRA massacred some 300 IDPs in Barlonya camp in February 2004.

Over 17,000 children aged between seven and 12 years have fled from the Lord's Resistance Army rebels' captivity since 1986, a Northern Youth Connection (NYC) survey has revealed. The Aga Khan High School students, led by Darren Hynes, a teacher, initiated the NYC, a community service programme. Hynes said about 22,000 children have been abducted between 1986 and 2002, an estimate of 30 children per day.

The Ugandan government said last Thursday that it would relax restrictions on political party activity and hold a referendum next February to decide whether the country should revert back to full multiparty politics. As part of the "road map", local, presidential and parliamentary elections were being planned for between February to March 2006, Justice Minister Janat Mukwaya said.

Uganda and the DRC, both full members of the International Criminal Court (ICC), have recently requested that the ICC investigate atrocities being committed on their territory. If applied carefully and with the full use of its provisions for victims and witnesses, the ICC could play a positive role in furthering the resolution of these conflicts while laying the groundwork for long term reconciliation and stability, says a report from Citizens for Global Solutions, a grassroots membership organization that envisions a future in which nations work together to abolish war, protect rights and freedoms, and solve the problems facing humanity that no nation can solve alone.

Uganda's leader has angrily condemned a court ruling, which nullified a 2000 referendum, in which a return to multi-party politics was rejected. The constitutional court decision was "totally unacceptable" Yoweri Museveni said in a live television broadcast. Under Uganda's Movement system, parties are allowed to exist, but they are not allowed to contest elections.

Women meet weekly in Juliet's house in Gayaza in Rakai district. In psychological jargon, this is an interpersonal psychotherapy group. In practice, it resembles community support and friendship, the kind of network which has been destroyed by the HIV/Aids pandemic. The success of these groups in combating depression and boosting productivity means that they will be rolled out to the other Ugandan districts of Luwero and Mpigi later this year.

At least 6,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) were left homeless after a fire gutted parts of the sprawling Pabbo camp in northern Uganda, destroying hundreds of grass-thatched huts where the IDPs had been living, local leaders and the army said. Another fire in Pabbo earlier this year destroyed several thousand huts and highlighted the problem of congestion in the camps. The congestion in the camp has also resulted in a breakdown of social structures, increased crime, and alcohol and drug abuse, according to local authorities.

The Internet Café was set up to enable women and girls to have access to technology in an environment that does not continue to re-emphasise the stereotypes against them and where they can confidently gain skills without intimidation. Since its inception in the year 2000, the cafe has continued to be a source of inspiration to many women and girls.

Adequate resource mobilization for food and social services should be undertaken to sustain the lives of IDPS in Northern Uganda while adequate security should be provided for the IDPs as camps have in the recent past been consistently targeted by the Lords Resistance Army. This is according to a report from the Select Committee on the Security and Humanitarian Situation in the Lango, Acholi and Teso Sub regions. This Committee was formed after Parliament received and discussed the brief on displaced persons and government emergency intervention in Lira, Kaberamaido, Soroti and Katakwi districts submitted to it by the Rt Hon First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, Lt Gen Moses Ali on 13th November 2003.