Uganda LAWA Fellow 1996-1997 L.L.B., Makerere University Post-Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Law Development Center, Uganda L.L.M., Georgetown University Law Center Honorable Lady Justice High Court of Uganda P.O. Box 7085 Kampala, Uganda Nakawa High Court Circuit P.O. Box 20191

Affiliations: FIDA-U WILDAF

Profile:

In 2004, Margaret Oguli-Oumo became the 11th  female judge in Uganda. Justice Oguli-Oumo currently presides over the High Court of Uganda, in Kampala. Since 2002, she has been working on simplifying the “World Summit Declaration and Plan of Action for Children” for UNICEF-Uganda as a consultant in relation to CEDAW, and has been training Land Officers on gender and land issues in Uganda. She plans soon to open up a consultancy firm.

LAWA Experience:

For her graduate thesis, “Property in Matrimonial Relations: Its Legal Implications for Women in Uganda,” Justice Oguli-Oumo discussed several types of marriages in Uganda and the factors that contribute to women being deprived of property when the marriage dissolves. She proposed a unified law recognizing the contribution women make to acquire property during marriage and distributing property equitably at dissolution.

During her fellowship internship at the World Bank, she continued to focus on land tenure, completing a paper entitled, “Land Tenure Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa,” and including profiles of the systems in forty-eight African countries.

Other Work Experience:

Justice Oguli-Oumo came to the LAWA program as the highest-ranking lawyer in the Ugandan government, as the Commissioner for Legal Affairs heading the Ministry of Gender and Community Development. In addition, she has served as Senior Advisory Member, Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer of FIDA(U). Justice Oguli-Oumo additionally served as Country Representative and as a member of the executive committee of WILDAF (U).

Following her fellowship, Justice Oguli-Oumo returned to Kampala and prepared Uganda’s third periodic report on its compliance under the Convention to Eliminate all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). She then resumed her position at the Ministry of Gender and Community Development. In 1997 she chaired the committee on democracy and good governance in relation to the Domestic Relations Bill. From 1998-2003 she was Director of Legal Affairs in the National Resistance Movement (NRM Secretariate). She simultaneously exploredways to set up an Equal Opportunities Commission in Uganda.

In 2001 she was the acting National Political Commissar and the following year collaborated on the publication released by the Commonwealth Secretariat: “Promoting an Integrated Approach to Gender Based Violence.”

Publications:

“Women and the New Constitution”, 1989.

“The Situation of Women’s Human Rights in Uganda”, 1994.

“The Situation of Women’s Rights in the Family”, 1994.

“The Situation of Women in Conflict Situations”, 1995.

Promoting an Integrated Approach to Combat Gender Based Violence: A Training Manual, 2002.