ICTJ Activity
Northern Uganda has long been the site of a long and desperate war with enormous humanitarian consequences. It is also a place where a very contentious debate has erupted on the relationship between peace and justice, and whether priority should be given to the first arrest warrants of the International Criminal Court unsealed in October 2005, or to other forms of justice.
The Center conducted its first assessment of the situation in Northern Uganda in March 2005. In April and May 2005, the Human Rights Center (HRC) at the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the ICTJ, conducted a survey in Northern Uganda, interviewing more than 2,500 Ugandans on their personal experiences of the nearly 20-year conflict and their opinions on how peace and justice should be achieved. In July, the Center and the HRC released a report on the survey results, drawing attention to the views of ordinary Ugandans. The report was the first study of its kind to be conducted in the midst of an ongoing conflict.
The report, entitled "Forgotten Voices," found the highest levels ever reported of exposure to traumatic events including killings, abductions, mutilations, and sexual violations. Despite the terrible suffering they continue to endure and the immediate needs that respondents expressed for peace and food, the study found that more than half of the respondents wanted to see perpetrators punished. In addition, a majority indicated that they wanted the opportunity to speak publicly about the abuses they had suffered. The report urged the national and local Ugandan authorities and the international community to work together to develop an integrated and comprehensive strategy for peace and justice in Northern Uganda.
The consequences of Uganda's conflict, particularly in terms of vulnerable parts of the population such as children and youth, is far-reaching. In late 2005 and early 2006, ICTJ
Senior Associate Marieke Wierda acted as an advisor to the MacArthur Foundation in the establishment of a trust fund to assist war-affected youth and children on issues ranging from education and vocational training to human rights and justice.
The ICTJ has also sought to contribute to capacity-building on transitional justice issues. In March 2006, the ICTJ held a stakeholder's discussion on transitional justice in the North, partnering with Gulu NGO Forum and the Liu Institute for Global Studies. In January 2007, the ICTJ partnered with Refugee Law Project in a seminar aimed at academics from Uganda and the region on Teaching Transitional Justice. Several prominent activists in Uganda have attended the ICTJ's Cape Town program. ICTJ Staff Abdul Tejan Cole, Samar Al-Bushiri, Richard Bailey, Blaz Guttierez, Olivier Kambala, and Kelli Muddell were all involved in these efforts.
In the summer of 2006, new peace talks were embarked upon between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army, hosted and mediated by the Government of South Sudan. The ICTJ is monitoring these developments closely and is in discussion with the various actors involved on justice issues. In the coming year, the ICTJ will seek to continue its programs in terms of technical assistance to actors directly involved in the justice debate as well as staging several additional workshops.
Simultaneously, the Center has advised the ICC on issues regarding victims in Northern Uganda, including on the implementation of a public outreach strategy. The ICTJ has also joined many public discussions on the complex issues prevalent in Northern Uganda, including the tensions between peace, justice, and humanitarian considerations.
Background
For almost two decades, the people of Northern Uganda have suffered terribly as a result of the war between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and government forces. LRA fighters have killed and mutilated countless numbers of civilians, abducted as many as 30,000 children and youth, and displaced up to 1.6 million civilians, who now live in vulnerable and squalid camps for the internally displaced. The consequences of LRA atrocities and violations by the Ugandan army, as well as the dismal situation in the camp, have all lent urgency to Uganda's debate on justice measures.
The Ugandan government has employed military action and mediation to try to end the conflict. In 1994 and 2004 government mediator Betty Bigombe almost succeeded in negotiating a successful end to the conflict, but both times the peace process faltered. In 2000, at the initiative of local religious leaders the government passed an act granting broad amnesty from criminal prosecution to any rebel who demobilized. But the amnesty process has suffered from several weaknesses, including providing impunity for senior leaders and failing to ensure adequate reintegration opportunities or involving affected communities.
In December 2003, President Museveni referred the situation in Northern Uganda to the International Criminal Court (ICC). In October 2005, the ICC made public its first arrest warrants since it was established in 2002, indicting LRA leaders Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti, as well as three other LRA commanders, Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odiambo, and Dominic Ongwen, who was killed before his arrest warrant was unsealed. The involvement of the ICC in Northern Uganda has generated significant controversy.
In the summer of 2006, a new peace process was initiated by the Government of South Sudan, and in August the Government of Uganda and the LRA signed a bilateral cessation of hostilities agreement. The peace talks, held at Juba, suffered a number of set backs but are considered the most serious attempt at a negotiated solution to the conflict in Northern Uganda to date. The peace talks have brought into sharp focus the question of what measures of justice should be included in any eventual settlement of the conflict.
(Updated Mar 07)
