Looking Beyond Ongwen: What Next for Transitional Justice in Northern Uganda?

Dominic Ongwen’s trial and judgment before the International Criminal Court (ICC) have elicited mixed reactions and views on the effectiveness of international criminal justice. This brief reflection goes beyond the Ongwen case to take a wider view of transitional justice mechanisms to note that justice still remains elusive for thousands of other victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), both within Uganda and beyond. It looks first at institutional reform within the ambit of criminal justice, focusing specifically on the domestic judicial framework on war crimes and international crimes. Secondly, it discusses the socio-economic elements of transitional justice, in particular the housing, land and property-related rights of internally displaced communities as well as of children born of war and the peculiar challenges they face in post-war settings. Based on the temporal realities of post-war Uganda, it is considered important to back the development and reform of key institutions that support transgenerational rights of communities affected by the conflict. In this connection, the ICC’s decision to hold in absentia proceedings against Joseph Kony offers some fresh impetus for thinking about transitional justice in the region, or at the very least, for highlighting the crimes allegedly perpetrated by Kony as commander of the LRA. Furthermore, a court trial would also enable victims of Kony’s alleged crimes to present their views and concerns. In addition, it is suggested that the investigation of crimes committed by the LRA outside Uganda must be considered by the ICC in order to provide holistic justice to all victims of the LRA.

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in Journal of International Criminal Justice following peer review. The version of record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqaf029