Uganda Family Justice Catalogue

Effective tools can assist families and practitioners in times when conflict arises. A user-friendly catalogue supported by evidence and based on best practices is designed to meet this need.

Family conflicts can have serious impacts

Most of us have experienced some form of conflict with a family member such as a spouse, sibling, parent or child. In many cases, dialogue and negotiation can bring forth a solution. However, in some cases conflicts can escalate and lead to serious consequences that deeply affect people’s lives. Separation, divorce and domestic violence make up the majority of family problems. These issues have the most severe impact on children and women. To address these concerns, many people and institutions actively try to help families. However, the scale and effectiveness of their efforts are often limited by a lack of access to best practices. HiiL is looking for funds and partners who can help change this.

Solutions are available but often difficult to access

Fortunately, there exists a wealth of knowledge on effective treatments. Academic research offers a wide range of best practices at both the institutional as well as individual levels. The challenge — whether as a person directly involved in a conflict or providing third-party assistance — is to navigate all this information and to know which treatments apply to which situations. If only there was some user-friendly product that would make these interventions readily available to every child, woman and man in need.

Solving problems by providing treatment guidelines

One solution is the Family Justice Catalogue: a treatment guideline. It combines identifiable best practices with evidence about ‘what works’. The first edition of the catalogue was released in Uganda in two versions, one for family justice providers (such as Local Council Courts, community leaders, police, social workers, judges and lawyers) and a version for users. This methodology and approach are adopted from the medical sector, where treatment guidelines are used globally by all levels of healthcare professionals. The use of guidelines for practitioners has had transformational effects in medicine, even leading to certain diseases being eradicated completely.

The Catalogue is user-friendly and will greatly support officers working with children and families. The District Probation and Social Welfare Officers will find it useful in their day to day interface with families.

— Francis Ogweng, Child & Family Protection Officer (Uganda Police Headquarters)