THE CONSTITUTION

OF 

WICO UGANDA

 

WICO Uganda is national non profitable organization
(NGO) founded in Uganda. WICO Uganda is a branch of
Women International Coalition Organization founded in
Jerusalem - Israel by Dr. DALIA STEINER "Ambassador
For Peace",  and in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma U.S.A by
Rev. MARILYN KOTULEK - "International White Eagle
Ministries", INC.

GOALS
WICO Uganda shall promote the International
organization's goals which include:
 To work for the benefit of men, women and
children all over the world with no preference towards
ethnicity or religion.
 To protect their lives and rights.
 To better their quality of life.
 To advance them in different life fields as :
Education, Professional Education, Culture
 For Peace and mainly prevent violence,
injustice evolving from discrimination and social
inequality.
 To encourage democratic thought and action
through a collaborative environment to positively
impact to the community especially the women.
 To encourage entrepreneurship promotion
amongst women through participatory approaches.
 To provide a unified voice in the affairs of
leadership, business, justice, human rights, democracy
and health,
 To develop leadership skills, capacity and
experience necessary for women empowerment.
 To promote or conduct business development
practices pertinent to promoting equal opportunities
for all people to reduce poverty,
 To promote tolerance, integrity,
understanding, and peace for effective change in the
lives of all people in the community,
NOW
We, the founder members of "WICO UGANDA" as listed
below do hereby establish this Constitution on 1ST
November 2005 in order that our purpose be realized to
its fullest extent.
1.

2. Namubiru Betty Jackie
3. Nantaba Khasifa
4. Ayebale Olive
5. Nsereko Lillian
6.

ARTICLE I: THE SUPREMARCY OF THE CONSTITUTION
This constitution shall be the supreme and binding
authority of the organization and any resolution,
policy or action inconsistent with this constitution,
this constitution shall prevail and the resolution,
decision, policy or action shall be to the extent of
such inconsistence null and void.

ARTICLE II: NAME AND OPERATION
 This organization shall be known as "WICO UGANDA",
herein also referred to as "the organization" and
shall be located and operate in Uganda.
.
ARTICLE III: DEFINITIONS
The following terms, whenever appearing in this
Constitution, shall have the following respective
meanings and any changes made to the definitions shall
automatically be made to this Article:

1. Eligible to Vote shall refer to any member unless
otherwise prohibited within this Constitution.
2. The Board is a joint committee of all
sub-committees responsible for various activities of
the organization, as they will from time to time be
constituted in accordance with this constitution.
3. WICO UGANDA is an Affiliate Organization of WICO
International.
4. Affidavit of Eligibility is a required
informational form filed by any member or
organization, which identifies the organization or
member's interested in being general members of WICO
UGANDA and must include all pertinent information.
5. Good standing means that the individual or member
organization must be in good records both in the
organization and the community.
6. Quorum shall be understood as the presence in
meetings of representatives from fifty percent of
entire committee or organization's members plus one
additional member, also known as a majority.

ARTICLE III - AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1. To promote gender, children and disabled rights and
empower them to access and enjoy equal and sustainable
social, political and economic opportunities without
any discrimination..
2. To develop leadership capacity; promote alternative
dispute resolution, democracy and human rights,
business development and promoting an awareness of the
responsibility to participate in public affairs by the
community.
3. To provide a forum to the community to develop
thoughts and ideas, to organize, promote and advance
their ideals, aspiration, history, culture, language,
literature, socio-economical development for the well
being and betterment of life.
4. To advance peace and resolve conflicts for mutual
exchange of social, cultural and historical
understandings and good-will along with educational
and technological ties on one hand, and to foster
close and strong ties with other compatriots and
development partners.
5. To honor the ideals and formulate bridges for just
and fair democratic values and provide able and
effective leadership for the community by enhancing
and developing the skills, attitudes,
historical-Cultural, socio-economical and educational
foundations of the community.



ARTICLE IV: MEMBERSHIP
1. Any individual wishing to join the organization can
do so by applying to join and agree to abide by the
Constitution of the Organization on signing an
affidavit of eligibility. No one shall be
discriminated on basis of race, religion, nationality,
color or creed of the individual.
2. The following are the types of membership:
i. General members: All women who will express
willingness by applying for membership and pay an
annual subscription fee of 30 US Dollar (50,000 Uganda
Shillings.) on signing an affidavit.
ii. Associate members: All individuals joining the
organization but unwilling to sign an affidavit of
eligibility. There shall not be any subscription fee
for Associate members of the Organization and they
will not be eligible to vote or stand for election
into an office but can attend assembly meetings and
participate in discussions i.e. the Men.
iii. Founding members: Individuals who had been
involved in the establishment of this organization
from the very beginning up to the end shall be called
the "Founding members" of the organization. The rights
and privileges of the founding members are the same as
that of the member for as long as the organization
exists.
iv. Life member: Any member wishing to be a member for
life of the organization can do so by paying a one
time donation determined by the Executive Body. She
shall be called " Life Member" of the organization.
v. Honorary Member: WICO UGANDA shall award honorary
membership to those individuals whose contributions
are essential to attain the main objectives of the
organization. Honorary members are not eligible to
vote; however they can participate in the general
council meeting. The executive committee nominates
individuals or organizations for honorary membership
i.e. members of WICO in other countries.
vi. Youth Member: Individual below the age of 18
(eighteen) who join the organization shall be termed
as "Youth members" As a youth member they can learn
from members as mentors of the organization and
acquire valuable knowledge and experience. As future
members of the organization leadership qualities shall
be encouraged and developed so that they could assume
future leadership role in the organization. Youth
members are not allowed to vote. No member or
representative may hold more than one seat.
3. All individual members shall pay an annual
subscription fee of 50,000/= and affiliate
organizations will pay 100,000/= i.e. District
branches.
4. Any committee or assembly member exceeding two
absences without justifiable reasons will be declared
inactive, and shall be suspended from voting
privileges until reactivated.
5. An inactive member may request reactivation from
the Assembly at any regular meeting after
demonstrating regular attendance. A simple majority
vote of the whole Assembly is sufficient to reactivate
a delinquent individual or organization.

ARTICLE V: THE ORGANIZATIONAL STUCTURE:
1. The organization structure of the WICO UGANDA will
comprise of the following bodies:
a) The Founder members
b) The Assembly
c) Executive Body.
d) The District Committees
e) Headquarters
f) The Advisory Body:
2. The Assembly shall consist of all members of the
organization. It is the main body of the organization
and will elect the members of the Executive body.
3. The Executive is a body of elected members who will
carry on the business of the organization and are
accountable for planning, managing, monitoring and
implementing the function of the organization.
4. The Executive body shall be of 7 elected members
from the active members of the assembly.
5. The headquarters shall be the main administrative
and coordinating center for the activities of WICO
UGANDA. However the organization will establish
offices and branches as will be deemed necessary by
the Executive.
6. The President in consultation with the Executive
Body shall nominate the Advisory Body of not more that
3 members. Nominated members of the Advisory Body
shall remain in office as long as the term of office
of the Executive Body. All past Presidents shall
become honorary members of this Advisory body and
remains to be so as long as she desires.

ARTICLE VI: OFFICERS
A. WICO UGANDA executive body shall be composed of the
following to be elected by the assembly in accordance
with this constitution:
i. President
ii. Vice President
iii. General Secretary
iv. Treasurer
v. Publicity Secretary
vi. Member
vii. Member.
B. The Organization shall have a Speaker of the
Assembly who:
i. Shall be elected according to requirements in
Article VII of this Constitution.
ii. Shall preside over all regular and special
meetings of the Assembly.
iii. Shall obtain copies of all resolutions to be
introduced in the Assembly and ensure they are
correctly formatted before being presented to the
Assembly.
iv. Shall be responsible for keeping an up-to-date
list of members and will advise them on the Assembly
seating.
v. Shall serve as an ex-officio member of all standing
and adhoc Assembly committees, with the exception of
the Elections Committee when the Speaker is running
for reelection or any other committee where the
Speaker may have a conflict of interests.
vi. Shall vote in the Assembly only in the case of a
tie.
vii. Shall supervise the Assembly Recorder of
proceedings.
viii. Shall be an ex-official member of the Executive
Board, and shall preside over the Executive Board
meeting in the absence of the President and the Vice
President.

C. The assembly recorder:
i. Shall be elected from the Assembly
ii. Documents attendance and verifies Quorum
iii. Takes minutes during the meeting
iv. Records all meetings and turn the minutes over to
the General Secretary so that minutes may be
disseminated.
v. Shall serve at the leisure of the Organization.
Removal from office will be set by the guidelines of
the executive.

ARTICLE VII: RIGHTS & DUTIES:
A. Rights and duties of the members of the executive
and other office bearers:
i. The President: The president will be responsible
for overall operation of the organization. She shall
use every effort to achieve the aims and objectives of
the organization. She shall chair the Executive body
meeting. She may nominate members on the District
committee. She shall form and dissolve special
assignment committees for various activities as needed
for the development of the organization's program. She
must see that all the decisions made in the committees
are made by the majority vote. In case of a tie, she
shall be called on to cast the deciding vote except in
the assembly. She shall see that the records of all
activities are kept in proper order according to the
constitution and the law of the land and the founder
WICO International.
ii. Vice President: She shall assist and help the
President in all manners possible. She will be
responsible for developing annual programs in
coordination with the President and other members of
the Executive Body. In case of absence of the
President, she shall assume the role of the acting
president with full power and responsibility of the
President. By order of the President she shall chair
various meetings and activities and represent the
organization at various venues.
iii. General Secretary: She will be responsible for
all administrative activities of the organization and
must work in consultation with the President and the
vice president. She shall keep track of all
records/reports of all organization's activities and
paper trail at District, National and International
levels. She shall keep the meeting minutes and
circulate them within a week to the meeting. She will
call all General and Executive meetings as and when
advised by the President. She will be responsible for
preparing the annual report and present it in the
annual general meeting. She shall see that the
organization and its branches are properly registered
and keep it up-to-date.
iv. Treasurer: She shall be undertaking all activities
in relation to the financial and monetary aspect of
the organization. She shall keep track of all revenue
and expenditure records, donations and dues etc. she
shall present the annual income and expenditures
report at the annual assembly meeting of the
organization. She will be responsible for conducting
an annual audit and keep books of accounts accordance
with the Public Financial and Accounting Regulations
and will be responsible for fund raising activities of
the organization.
v. Members of Executive Body: All members should
attend the executive meeting and participate in a
decision making process of the organization, be active
and provide intellectual and creative ideas and
thoughts to enhance and advance the organization.
B. Rights and Duties of the members of WICO UGANDA.
i. The General members who form the assembly of the
organization have the right to cast vote for electing
the members of the Executive Body.
ii. They will be called upon to vote for other issues
like constitution amendments and other issues. They
must try their best to participate in person.
iii. Voting is the basic right of the members. Each
member must exercise this right according to her
conscience.
iv. Members elected or nominated to an office of the
organization must make it their responsibility and
duty to participate in the meetings and activities of
the Organization as called upon by the Executive body
for the development of the organization.
v. In order for any member to run for an elected
office she must have participated actively in the
organization in various capacities and must have been
a member of one working committee. Her candidacy shall
be proposed by one member, seconded by another and
endorsed by one of the founding members. The
endorsement of a founding member shall be required for
the first two elections only. Then-after endorsement
of founding members is not required. No one founding
member shall endorse two candidates for the same post.
vi. Associate members of the organization can
participate in all activities of the organization but
do not have the right to vote or run for elections.
However, they may be appointed or nominated by the
President in consultation with the Executive Body to
serve in any of the committees formed by the Executive
Body.

vii. The assembly shall be the guiding body of the
organization to see that the various activities of the
Organization are in conformance with the constitution
of the Organization. It is the duty of all members in
all categories to bring to the notice of all if any
article of the Constitution has been violated so that
immediate remedial step can be undertaken to rectify
the mistake.
c. Vote of No Confidence
i. A voting member can floor the Vote of No Confidence
to remove the Executive committee or a member of the
Executive committee, or any other committee or
individual of office by submitting written petition
with signature of at least 40% of the voting members
to the general meeting.
ii. The Vote of No confidence has to be approved by
66.66% of the voting members of the organization in
order to be implemented.
D. Rights and Duties of Members of the Advisory Board:
i. Members of the Advisory Board shall be a source of
advice, experience and information for the President,
the Executive Body and all other members of the
Organization.
ii. They are only a consultative body and shall not do
anything to influence any activities of the
organization such as elections or other policy matters
in a direct or an indirect way.

ARTICLE VIII: ELECTIONS
1. Elections shall be held in accordance with this
constitution.
2. The Founding Members shall constitute a fully
independent Electoral Commission three months prior to
elections. Founding members are free to co-opt
associate and honorary members for this exercise.
3. The assembly shall elect from its body the
Executive Committee , a Speaker and a Recorder in
accordance with the simple majority rule,
4. Each member shall cast only one vote.
5. Electoral commission shall be responsible for
conducting free and fair elections as an important
part of the democratic practice. The election process
should be transparent and fully disclosed and
explained to all members of the organization.
6. The Electoral Commission shall formulate all rules
and regulations to conduct this fair and democratic
election.
7. Voting shall be cast by the registered voting
members to exercise their basic rights. In case of the
contested election the candidates will have to obtain
at-least 51% of the vote cast to win the election.
8. All officers shall be elected by a simple majority
of eligible members of "WICO UGANDA." All elections
will be held every five years.
9. The speaker will take nominations from the floor,
the nomination process must be closed and the motion
seconded. The nominated parties will be allowed to
vote if they are eligible voting members.
10. All voting shall be done by secret ballot and the
detailed result announced by the Election commission,
to be collected and tabulated by the recorder and one
voting member of "WICO UGANDA," appointed by the
founding members.
11. All office bearers will have a Five-year term in
office starting the 1st of June.
12. Newly elected officers will assume office on 1st
July of every election year, except in the case of
midterm elections. Officers elected midterm will
assume office immediately after their election.

ARTICLE IX: District Committee Members
1. The president shall nominate members to the
District Committee as will be guided by the executive
and founder members in accordance with this
constitution.
2. District Committee Members must be Active Members
of good standing.
3. Members are responsible to attend all meetings of
both the District and the National Assembly.
4. Members may be removed in accordance with the
procedures in this constitution.
5. Vacancies must be filled in accordance with this
constitution.

ARTIVLE X: DISTRICT COMMITTEES
1. There will be seventy six District Committees
2. Each committee is required to convene and select a
committee leader.
3. The seventy six committees (76) shall have
subcommittees i.e.
i. Leadership development committee
ii. Business development committee
iii. Democracy and Human Rights committee
iv. Alternative dispute resolution Committee
v. Finance committee
vi. Arts and Entertainment committee
13. Other committees may be proposed by the President
and approved by the executive in accordance with this
constitution. The above Committees may be
merged/removed or reinstated as and when the Executive
deems it necessary.
14. Business in these committees must be conducted in
a timely manner, and regular reports must be given to
the Secretary General on the progress of the
committee.
15. The District committees must present activities
and recommendations for all proposals to the Assembly
for approval.

ARTICLE XI: GOOD STANDING ON COMMITTEES
1. Members, who exceed two (4) unexcused absences in
meetings, will be removed from that committee and the
seat shall be filled by another member from the
assembly within one month upon endorsement by the
Executive.
2. If it is the District committee chairperson that
has exceeded four (4) unexcused absences in meetings,
then the committee shall appoint a new chair by
majority vote, and that new member shall be selected
from the current members of the district committee.

ARTICLE XII: MEETINGS
1. Annual General Meeting: The Executive body shall
mandatory call one general meeting for all its members
every year. The organization shall also conduct
regularly scheduled meetings during all months except
November and December and shall establish regular
meeting times, which shall be published.
2. Executive Body Meeting: Executive Body must call to
order at least four quarterly meeting of its body.
3. Emergency Assembly Meeting: The Executive body can
call an Emergency meeting of the assembly as deemed
necessary by the Executive body reflecting the need
and urgency of the matter in hand to be discussed for
the defense and upkeep of the organization.
4. District meetings: The district meetings of WICO
UGANDA shall sit at least once every three months and
will be presided over by the Committee leader and
copies of minutes shall be passed on to the General
Secretary. 
5. Quorum (51%) must be present in order for voting to
take place in all meetings. In the case of the
executive, if the Quorum is not reached for the
validity of the meeting a second call for the meeting
shall be made and at least 33% of the executive
members must be present in person to validate the
meeting.
6. Resolutions shall pass with a simple majority vote
as specified in this Constitution.
7. Amendments to this Constitution shall be added upon
passage with a 2/3 vote of the voting membership.
8. Minutes and other documents will be made available
no later than one week after any meeting, and paper
copies will be available at the next meeting.
9. Members are responsible to review the agenda and
minutes for the previous meeting before the meeting at
which they will be accepted.
10. All members are required to bring a copy of the
current agenda and the minutes of the previous meeting
to all meetings.

ARTICLE XIII: REMOVAL FROM OFFICE
Any officer of "WICO UGANDA" in violation of the
organization's purpose or constitution may be removed
from office by the following process:
1. A written request by at least 30 members of the
assembly.
2. Written notification to the officer of the request
and asking the officer to be present at the next
appropriate meeting prepared to speak in their own
defense.
3. Written notification to the membership. 75% of the
voting membership must be in attendance to vote on
removal of an officer. A two-thirds (2/3) majority of
those present is necessary to remove an officer.

`ARTICLE XIV: REPLACEMENT

Should an officer resign or be removed, a special
election will be held two weeks after written
notification to all voting members but not late than
one month.

ARTICLE XV - THE FUND
i. A "WICO UGANDA Fund" for the organization shall be
created to fund various activities of the
organization.
ii. The fund shall be generated from subscriptions and
donations received from various members, well-wishers
and benefactors of the organization and income from
various activities and program undertaken by the
organization.
iii. Donations and grants shall be voluntary though
solicited and donation drives will be conducted from
time to time to meet the basic needs of the
organization.
iv. "WICO UGANDA" will conduct all financial
activities in accordance with procedures to be
developed by the executive, in accordance with the
laws of Uganda.
v. A current bank account shall be opened under the
name "WICO UGANDA" with a reputable bank and shall
have three principal signatories including the
president.
vi. The organization is authorized to enter into
ventures to increase its operational income through
loan acquisition and partnerships with the approval of
the founder members in accordance with the laws of the
land.
vii. An external auditor will be contracted to audit
WICO UGANDA's books of accounts annually.



ARTICLE XVI - AMENDMENTS
This constitution is binding to all members of  "WICO
UGANDA," but the constitution is not binding unto
itself.
1. Amendments to the constitution may be proposed in
writing by any voting member of "WICO UGANDA" at any
meeting in which two-third (2/3) of the voting members
are present.
2. These amendments will be placed on the agenda for
the next regular assembly meeting.
3. Proposed amendments will become effective following
approval of two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of voting
assembly members.

ARTICLE XVII: DISSOLUTION
1. The organization may be dissolved, proposed in
writing by any thirty (30) voting member of "WICO
UGANDA" at any meeting in which two-third (2/3) of the
voting members are present.
2. The proposal will then be placed on the agenda for
the next regular general assembly meeting for
discussion and debate.
3. Proposed dissolution will become effective
following approval of two-thirds (2/3) majority vote
of voting assembly members.
4. The Secretary of the NGO Board and Registrar of
Companies will be officially informed of this
decision.
5. The property of WICO UGANDA will then be passed on
to organizations with similar objectives to be
identified by the seating executive and the Founder
members.
Adopted and signed on this ........day
of..............2005










WICO UGANDA ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

FOUNDING BODY

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

EXECUTIVE

SECRETARY GENERAL PRESIDENT

VICE PRESIDEN

2 MEMBERS                   
 
TREASURER                   

                         
SPEAKER


76 DISTRICT COMMITTEES