Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza

“It only covers sexual assaults of women and does not recognise men as possible victims. It is concerned with the absence of consent either because force was used or because the consent was a result of fraud and falsehood. Prosecutors must also deal with the issue of the state of mind of the accused. If there is no mental fault, it is not regarded as rape. Honest belief in consent is enough to free the accused from criminal liability even if that belief might seem unreasonable.”

“Reducing crime must be preceded by interrogating society’s views on the crime in question. Knowing what society considers acceptable behaviour may explain the prevalence of an offence.”

“There is a need to change the social not just the legal understandings of rape in Uganda. Like with any other social phenomena, crime can only be understood by interrogating the broad social context within which it occurs. To understand issues of sexuality and sexual encounters between men and women, it is crucial that the discussion is placed within the discourse of gender in Uganda’s patriarchal society.”

“We must be where decisions are made. Of course we know that the legal profession is wide. And a young generation should be aware that there is a possibility that what they are engaged in today, may not be what they will be engaged in decades ahead.”

“We must position women. The feminization of the legal profession will have meaning only if women are positioned in high levels of this practice. Because this is where decisions are made.”

“One of the things I realised is that academic work, scholarly work or legal scholarship, is actually an advantage to a person because we are talking about discussing principles of law, especially when you are serving in the highest court, the court which has the last say in dispute resolution.”

“I know that these inequalities are reproduced in the family, the community and they are also reproduced in the workplace where we find ourselves as lawyers. Women lawyers can bring about substantive changes not only in the practice of the law, but in the law itself”

“I believe freedom of expression is a human right just like other rights and I think every judicial officer at every level needs training in human rights, and most certainly on freedom of expression, because it is critical to interpret law within a human rights perspective. We must also remember that freedom of expression is important for democracy, good governance and the rule of law and that these three are really the bedrock of development.”