Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

The goal of the project is to strengthen effective and equitable access to justice for victims through credible and inclusive transitional justice processes. Furthermore, capacities of stakeholders (policymakers, victims, and civil society) are developed to create the ability and capability to engage with, develop, and deliver credible transitional justice processes.

Expected results

1. Enhanced technical competence of policy makers and stakeholders to develop credible and inclusive transitional justice processes.

2. Enhanced capacity of policymakers and civil society to advance a gender inclusive transitional justice process in Uganda.

3. Victims and stakeholders constructively engage and influence the transitional justice processes

4. Stakeholders have increased ability to collect and analyse data to inform the transitional justice process and link it to the achievement of the SDG goals.

Target group / Beneficiaries

The target group consists of victims of human rights violations; victims’ organizations specifically those reaching remote areas, women, and victims with disabilities; civil society organizations working to promote victims’ rights, accountability, and access to justice; academic institutions; and relevant state actors. The interventions will benefit approximately 30 victims’ groups with a combined membership of over 900 victims 65 civil society groups and 20 state institutions. Through their constituencies, the estimated number of direct beneficiaries is approximately 1100 while the indirect beneficiaries are estimated at 5,000.

ICTJ will collaborate with a number of organisations, including the African Youth Initiative Network, Avocats Sans Frontières, Justice and Reconciliation Project, the Refugee Law Project, the Women’s Advocacy Network and local and national state actors.

Activities will mainly take place in Kampala and in the Acholi, Lango, Teso and West Nile sub-regions in Northern Uganda. Most activities in Northern Uganda will take place in Gulu (in Acholi).

Activities

Numerous activities are implemented throughout the project, ranging from training seminars and technical meeting for policy makers to strategic meetings for victim groups as well as workshops, roundtable dialogues and music and art festivals for victims and stakeholders alike. Furthermore, a national conference focusing on research and data generation shall be convened as well as women activists supported through mentorship and strategy meetings, roundtable advocacy sessions, workshops, and multimedia campaigns.

Context

Uganda´s commitment to pursue transitional justice in the years since the end of the brutal conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda in 2006 is communicated in multiple policies and frameworks. Recently, this includes the National Transitional Justice Policy (NTJP) adopted in 2019. The NTJP provides a framework to pursue an independent, comprehensive, and credible transitional justice process that delivers reform, truth, justice, and reparations. It goes further by seeking to address the root causes of violent conflict in Uganda and prevents its recurrence by promoting reconciliation and nation-building and addressing gaps in the justice system. The proposed project will address these gaps by supporting efforts to advance justice, rule of law, and good governance as the basis for a more peaceful and prosperous society. through strengthening credible and inclusive transitional justice. In this way, the project seeks to break recurrent cycles of violence to lay foundations for a peaceful and just society and advance gender equality.