EDOU was selected to lead Girls Not Brides Uganda National Partnership (GNBU) to write a Shadow Report on child marriage for Uganda for the UN Committee on the Rights of a Child (UN CRC). The Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage (GNB) commissioned the project.
It is an extensive process that involves comprehensive secondary data research on child marriage in Uganda, convening 144 GNBU members in consultative forums, and interacting with the UN CRC in Geneva.
Shadow Reports are a method for NGOs to supplement and/or present alternative information to reports that governments are required to submit under human rights treaties. Unlike governments’ reports, which often highlight the progress of the State in meeting its human rights obligations whilst downplaying violations, shadow reports often provide treaty body committees with crucial information about problems in implementation and areas of government non-compliance. NGOs around the world use shadow reports to lobby various United Nations' bodies, including treaty-monitoring bodies, thematic groups, charter-based bodies, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
EDOU is leading GNBU in a consultative process to set priorities for Uganda's shadow report on child marriage, contextualise and build a case for the identified priorities, and make actionable recommendations/questions to the government of Uganda in the Shadow Report.