Multilayered Justice in Northern Uganda: ICC Intervention and Local Procedures of Accountability (original) (raw)
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Stability: International Journal of Security & Development, 2013
"This practice note describes and critiques the initial years of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) involvement in Uganda from the perspective of local civil society actors. It argues that the substance and process of the ICC’s intervention fell chronically short of generating justice for those who had lived with the conflict for over two decades, and therefore created a disconnect between the priorities of those on the ground, and the priorities of the Court and its international minders. In order to unravel some of the dynamics that underpinned this disconnect, the paper asserts that the pivotal relationship between citizen and state provides a lens through which to assess any approach to generating justice in Uganda. It concludes that those promoting international justice need to be more cognisant of the fact that international justice mechanisms are obsolete unless they can move from theory to practice and make a genuine difference in people’s lives. In this regard, a better understanding and awareness of the political and social context in which they are operating, as well as greater self-critique and honesty, is critical."
The conflict in northern Uganda presents a unique study in comparing international, domestic and traditional responses to justice and stability amid prolonged conflict. This article explains the colonial and political background of the country and the emergence of the parties to the fighting, and describes the violations of interna- tional humanitarian and human rights law committed by all armed groups. It exam- ines the various responses to these violations, focusing on Uganda’s Amnesty Act, International Criminal Court indictments, the Juba peace talks, and traditional con- flict resolution and reconciliation ceremonies, and explores how these mechanisms for negotiating peace and instilling justice are facilitating or interfering with each other. Overall, it attempts to discover how this interplay between international ideal- ism, regional and national politics, cultural influences and logistical feasibility not only presents important lessons concerning the conflict in Uganda, but also reflects and informs false dichotomies in international criminal law and transitional justice.
Local alternative approaches to transitional justice in northern Uganda
The International Criminal Court and the Lord’s Resistance Army, 2019
This book interrogates the sharp contrast that emerged between demands of the norms of international rule of law and the interests of conflict resolution at a local level in northern Uganda. Examining how the nature and character of complex conflict situations like that of northern Uganda confounds the application of transitional justice mechanisms, The International Criminal Court and the Lord's Resistance Army reveals the enduring dilemmas of transitional justice. Scrutinising the competing interests of punitive approaches to contemporary transitional justice and the political considerations for peace that may entail entering into dialogue with criminals, this book approaches such concepts from the perspective of international standards and the standpoint of the victims. While exploring the complexities of transitional justice processes, the book interrogates prevailing assumptions, proposing a broader conception that places at the centre local structural conditions associated with a conflict. The International Criminal Court and the Lord's Resistance Army will be of interest to scholars and students of international law, African politics and conflict studies.
The International Criminal Court and the transformation of post-war justice in Northern Uganda
Sentio Journal, 2021
This article looks at the interface between the International Criminal Court and transitional justice processes in Northern Uganda. It takes a doctrinal approach, drawing on qualitative work in the fields of international criminal law, human rights, and political science. The Ugandan situation demonstrates that top-down transitional justice has both positive and negative dimensions. This article argues that, while the International Criminal Court has helped transform judicial aspects, it has also contributed towards the decline of traditional justice mechanisms. Overall, the article concludes that there is still a compelling case to be made for the involvement of international criminal tribunals in postwar contexts, but that it needs to be done in such a way that promotes good domestic processes and incorporates bottom-up perspectives.
Traditional Justice and War Crimes in Northern Uganda
2011
This policy brief assesses the continuing relevance of traditional justice in Northern Uganda. Over two years after the dissolution of the Juba peace negotiations in November 2008, several questions continue to remain unanswered regarding how traditional justice mechanisms can be utilized to promote accountability and reconciliation. More specifically, questions persist as to whether traditional justice can be utilized to address war crimes and crimes against humanity. There is still uncertainty in the field as to how traditional approaches can complement the wider national and international processes of transitional justice. Between November 2010 and February 2011, the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP), in collaboration with the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR), organized a series of consultations with victims of conflict in Northern Uganda, entitled ‘Enhancing Grassroots Involvement in Transitional Justice Debates.’ The consultations, held in the Acholi/Lango,...
The continued prevalence of deadly conflicts resulting in atrocities and crimes against humanity bring to sharp contrast the competing demands of justice and the interests of conflict resolution and peace building. While contemporary transitional justice deals with questions of impunity in post conflict situations, this book examines the suitability of international justice for conflict resolution. This critique is situated in the historical development and rise to prominence of international humanitarian law and human rights conventions. It critiques the consequences of pursuing justice in on going conflicts and scrutinizes the competing interests of the punitive and retributive approach to contemporary international justice leading to prosecution, against a conflict resolution approach that favours political considerations for peace and security that may require engagement with perpetrators of war crimes in order to secure peace. The balance between peace and justice is the more difficult to strike in the context of an on going conflict such as Northern Uganda's where the pursuit of justice by the ICC risks exacerbating the conflict and diminishing the prospects for peace.
Uganda: Interaction between International and National Judicial Responses to Mass Atrocities
DOMAC Case Study Series, 2013
ABOUT DOMAC THE DOMAC PROJECT focuses on the actual interaction between national and international courts involved in prosecuting individuals in mass atrocity situations. It explores what impact international procedures have on prosecution rates before national courts, their sentencing policies, award of reparations and procedural legal standards. It comprehensively examines the problems presented by the limited response of the international community to mass atrocity situations, and offers methods to improve coordination of national and international proceedings and better utilization of national courts, inter alia, through greater formal and informal avenues of cooperation, interaction and resource sharing between national and international courts. THE DOMAC PROJECT is a research program funded under the Seventh Framework Programme for EU Research (FP7) under grant agreement no. 217589. The DOMAC project is funded under the Socio-economic sciences and Humanities Programme for the duration of three years starting 1st February 2008.
The International Criminal Court and conflict transformation in Uganda: Views from the field
The International Criminal Court (ICC) commenced investigation of the armed conflict in Uganda in 2004. In 2005 it issued arrest warrants for five leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). This article examines how the court's involvement in the situation has impacted on conflict transformation in Uganda after ten years of judicial work. It also addresses the problem of assessing the impact of law on conflict through the use of an analytical framework that is based on four variables: deterrence, victims' rights, reconciliation, and accountability to the law. Relying on this framework, and on a report of a field research project in Uganda, it argues that the ICC's intervention has had multiple impacts on the situation in Uganda, and that despite some arguments to the contrary, the ICC does promote conflict transformation through deterrence, promotion of accountability to the law and promotion of victims' rights.
This report is the result of analysis of data collected during three focus group discussions conducted in the communities of Lukodi, Barlonyo and Pabo in Northern Uganda in May 2016. The aim of the study was to gauge local views on the trial processes of former Lord’s Resistance Army commanders Dominic Ongwen, which commenced at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on 06 December 2016, and of Thomas Kwoyelo, at the International Crimes Division (ICD) in Uganda, originally due to commence in 2016 but expected in 2017. Much of the research on international criminal justice in Northern Uganda was produced at a time when the prospect of international criminal trials taking place was a distant mirage. The situation has now changed. With the Ongwen and Kwoyelo trials imminent, this report hopes to shed new light on two issues. Firstly, the perceptions of conflict-affected communities of the two specific and long-awaited trial processes. Secondly, their views on the role and place of trial justice as a mechanism for post-conflict redress in Northern Uganda more generally. The report reveals a number of findings, including the fact that support for trial justice in Northern Uganda is very much differentiated and localised, that a strong interest in assessing the responsibility for LRA crimes - collectively and in the figure of Joseph Kony - as well as the role of the Ugandan State in the conflict remains and that the ICC, overall, appears to have stronger support than the ICD, due to a clear perception of corruption of the local Ugandan justice system.
Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology 7(1):20–34, 2015
In recent debates between social scientists and human rights and legal scholars, many anthropologists have argued that the successes or failures of transitional justice mechanisms to contribute to peace depend on a wide range of contextually situated historical, political, socio-economic, and cultural factors (see Hinton 2010). Human rights organizations often disregard or sideline such contextual specifics and favor a narrow definition of justice in terms of the unwavering punitive orthodoxy of international courts as the primary solution to conflict. Looking through an anthropological lens in this paper, I focus on the history of politics in post-colonial Uganda in order to render clearer the cycle of violence that emerged as a prominent feature of the political landscape of the region. Against this contextualized backdrop, I investigate the case of conflict between the Ugandan state and the Lord’s Resistance Army, and problematize the role of one international human rights organization, the International Criminal Court. I argue that by continuing its intervention in Uganda’s justice matters, the ICC is inadvertently granting the same kind of amnesty to past atrocities that it so condemns for present ones, and in doing so, grants international legitimacy to the current state while de-legitimizing non-state local forms of justice. Although ethnographic “field notes” are not included in the following pages, this essay represents one anthropologist’s analytical engagement with issues of justice in Uganda.