Young people in northern Uganda are facing increased risks of gender-based violence, recruitment into government military forces, and other human rights abuses due to the continued lack of security and protection, according to a new report by the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. "In the absence of adequate government protection, displaced people are seeking alternative means of protection," says Matthew Emry, project manager of the Women’s Commission’s Children and Adolescen...read more
Young people in northern Uganda are facing increased risks of gender-based violence, recruitment into government military forces, and other human rights abuses due to the continued lack of security and protection, according to a new report by the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children. "In the absence of adequate government protection, displaced people are seeking alternative means of protection," says Matthew Emry, project manager of the Women’s Commission’s Children and Adolescents Project, and a lead researcher and author of the report. "An estimated 50,000 'night commuters,' most of them children, adolescents and women, leave their homes in rural northern Uganda each night to escape attacks from the rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and spend the night in the relative safety of town centers, walking as far as six miles each way."
