A three-day capacity building workshop on women, constitution making and the electoral process is currently underway in Torit, Eastern Equatoria State.
Some 50 women groups, representatives of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and members of the State Legislative Assembly are in attendance.
The workshop kicked off on Wednesday and is expected to conclude on Friday. It is organized by United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Gender Affairs Unit’s Torit field office in collaboration with the State Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare,
South Sudan Network for Democratic Elections (SSuNDE), UNMISS Human Rights and Civil Affairs division are facilitating the workshop.
The workshop seeks create awareness on women rights to ensure it is incorporated in the South Sudan permanent constitution.
Oryema Emmanuel, SSuNDE’s State Coordinator, says the training aims to build the capacity of women on their rights in the electoral process.
“At the end of the workshop, we expect participants to know the concept of elections, constitution-making, the South Sudan Revitalized Peace Agreement, to know their rights and the jurisdictions of their rights, especially women,” Oryema said.
Dominica Idwa Vitale, the state Director General for Gender a number of issues need to be addressed including women’s role in peace and security.
She said the constitution should addresses equality between men and women as well as boys and girls as opposed to South Sudanese cultures.
“We need to look at the protection of women and girls, as mothers, we should stand firm during the constitution making so that we seal the loopholes that deny us our rights. We have MPs here, other women leaders from academia, from other sectors but do we have a voice?
Dominica says, “I am supposed to bring the rest of women from down up and that is the meaning of this capacity building, another one is to address this issue of gender inequality, we need to be equal”.
Kulang Jacinta, an activist in the state says the training is an eye opener for women to take up their positions as the elections approach.
Jacinta urges women to fight for their rights and compete with men for government positions during elections.
“There are positions in parliaments, governors are only men, what about you women what are you still doing? This training is opening our eyes as women because we are seeing that we are sleeping too much, we refuse to participate, we are being used to take positions that are not of our interest,” she said.
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