The effect of the protracted northern Uganda conflict to child abuse in the post conflict period: case study Barr sub-county, Lira district

Abstract

The study was aimed at establishing the effects of the protracted conflict in Northern Uganda in relation to child abuse in Barr Sub-County, Lira district. Specifically, the study examined people’s perception/ understanding on child abuse, forms, and causes of child abuse in the post conflict period, effects of conflict in the life of children, challenges faced in addressing the problem of child abuse and suggested ways through which child abuse could be addressed. Purposive sampling was employed to select respondents for the study. The study used in-depth interview with key informants, focus discussion with community members and self administered questionnaires as primary sources of data; review of secondary data was also done. The most predominant forms of child abuse reported were: early and forced marriage, defilement, physical abuse, child labour, child neglect, emotional abuse, sexual abuse. Causes of child abuse identified were: laxity in parents, inadequate care and protection by parents/guardians, domestic violence, separation and divorce, widow inheritance or remarriage of widows, ignorance of the law, bad cultural beliefs and practices, moral decadence, high rate of alcohol consumption and abuse of other drugs, misuse of women’s rights, poverty, polygamous marriage and unwanted pregnancy. The study established that the effects of war on children included: economic hardship, family disintegration, dependency syndrome, increased rate of HIV/infection, high level of indiscipline among children, high rate of school dropout, early and forced marriage, loss of cultural values and high level of moral decadence among the community. Challenges of child abuse noted were; difficulty in accessing police and courts of law, lack of protection when cases of child abuse are reported, hatred/enmity, lack of cooperation and coordination among actors, ignorance and lack of detention centers among others. Bureaucracy in handling cases of child abuse, failure by leaders to consider cases of child abuse reported by children, lack of training for low enforcers, misinterpretation of children’s rights and lack of follow up of reported cases. It was concluded that child abuse was still rampant in the post conflict communities in Northern Uganda and in particular Barr Sub-County, although the rate of abuse had slightly reduced. Child neglect was found to be most common form of child abuse and was attributed to the impact of war in Northern Uganda. It was recommended that there should be comprehensive services for survivors of child abuse, rights based approaches to child abuse, community based child abuse programmes, evidence based interventions, human resources development initiatives, networking and collaboration, awareness raising and advocacy. The researcher recommended that there is need for further studies on the current preventive strategies and counseling approaches used and that there is need to investigate why parents seem to be more negligent despite relative peace that has prevailed in the region.