ICTJ and UN Women will be hosting a two-day conference in Kampala, Uganda on December 7–8 to address ways to achieve accountability and justice for gender-based crimes perpetrated in Uganda.

Devastating violence against civilians, occurring during the nearly 20 years of armed conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and the Ugandan government, have included widespread incidents of gender-based violence including rape, sexual slavery, and forced marriages.

The impact of past and ongoing violence in Uganda must be addressed in order to facilitate the society’s transition from decades of brutal conflict. This conference, featuring experts from various international courts and tribunals, will focus on how to effectively address the specifically gender-based crimes that have targeted Ugandan women and children. The conference aims to contextualize the conflict by outlining the nature of past crimes committed during the conflict in Northern Uganda, as well as the ongoing violence perpetrated against civilians in local Ugandan communities.

Discussants will also draw upon case studies of previous international experiences and trials in order to understand where accountability programs for gender-based violence have succeeded and failed in the past. By facilitating discussion derived from previous legal experiences, the conference aims to develop a program to strengthen Uganda’s domestic legal system to address sexual violence and gender-based crimes.