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Advocating Transitional Justice in Africa pp 135–159Cite as

Madly Off in All Directions: Civil Society and the Use of Customary Justice as Transitional Justice in Uganda

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Part of the book series: Springer Series in Transitional Justice ((SSTJ))

Abstract

This chapter presents a case study of Uganda, where transitional justice mechanisms have been haphazardly convoked at least since 1971. Uganda stands out among countries that have utilised transitional justice, in Africa and elsewhere, because the ‘transition’ that many expect to materialise as a result of efforts to bring about justice simply has not come about. Instead, a series of intercultural conflicts and a long-governing, dictatorial government have meant that communities have been left to their own devices to deal with the events of the past. What follows is a reflection on the experience of civil society in the transitional justice arena—commonly referred to as ‘peace and justice’—in that country.

Research for this project was carried out with assistance from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, with research assistance from Tamara Hinan and Tammy Lambert.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I use the term “customary justice”, recognizing that the practices in use have changed over time. The commonly used term in Uganda is “traditional justice”.

  2. 2.

    These mechanisms are used across Uganda, but the northern Uganda conflict opened up a space to be able to talk about their use. The agreements signed at Juba, between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda, somewhat codified them (Quinn 2009a).

  3. 3.

    These include rebellions by the Action Restore Peace, Allied Democratic Forces, Apac, Citizen Army for Multiparty Politics, Force Obote Back, Former Uganda National Army, Holy Spirit Movement, the Lord’s Army, Lord’s Resistance Army, National Federal Army, National Union for the Liberation of Uganda, Ninth October Movement, People’s Redemption Army, Uganda Christian Democratic Army, Uganda Federal Democratic Front, Uganda Freedom Movement, Ugandan National Democratic Army, Uganda National Federal Army, Ugandan National Liberation Front, Ugandan National Rescue Fronts I and II, Ugandan People’s Army, Ugandan People’s Democratic Army, Uganda Salvation Army and the West Nile Bank Front (Hovil and Lomo 2004: 4; 2005: 6).

  4. 4.

    This is the latest publicly available data at the time of writing.

  5. 5.

    Museveni officially referred the situation to the ICC in December 2003. It has been commonly assumed that Museveni approached the Court first. Information has surfaced that the chief prosecutor actually approached Museveni to ask him to refer the situation. There is a great deal of debate about what this discrepancy means (Waddell and Clark 2008: 43).

  6. 6.

    A total of 14,000 individual claimants, through the Acholi War Debt Claimants Association, won a court-ordered settlement for their 2006 case, although the funds have been slow to come and there were allegations of fraud and fund mismanagement at the time of writing. A number of similar advocacy groups have sprung up among victims to push for compensation from the GOU.

  7. 7.

    The LC Courts were formerly known as Resistance Council Courts and “were first introduced in Luweero in 1983 during the struggle for liberation. In 1987 they were legally recognized throughout the country” (Waliggo 2003: 7).

  8. 8.

    Although these agreements were signed, at the time of writing the final agreement had not been signed for more than 8 years, and both parties had walked away from the talks. When the Working Group’s Chairman, Justice Ogoola, retired, much of the “attention fizzled out in the donor community for the work” (Otobi interview 2012).

  9. 9.

    The Transitional Justice Working Group , a consortium of government, civil society actors and international donors.

  10. 10.

    The GOU uses the language around “terrorism” as a justification to crack down on NGOs.

  11. 11.

    The National Development Plan does mention the tumultuous period from 1971 to 1979, when Uganda was governed by Idi Amin, although it does not list the insurgencies faced by Museveni since he came to power in 1986, nor the period from 1980 to 1985 when Obote returned to power. It further lists stability and peace as one of its 6 “vision” points without any further elaboration.

  12. 12.

    “JLOS is a sector-wide approach adopted by Government bringing together institutions with closely linked mandates of administering justice and maintaining law and order and human rights, into developing a common vision, policy framework, unified on objectives and plan over the medium term. It focuses on a holistic approach to improving access to and administration of justice through the sector wide approach to planning, budgeting, programme implementation, monitoring and evaluation”. See https://www.jlos.go.ug:442/index.php/about-jlos/our-history.

  13. 13.

    It is worth noting that opinion on Janet Museveni’s involvement is divided. Some contended that “she was not going to change anything after all”, or alleged that the Museveni family is engaged in a land grab that will give them access to oil and mineral rights to resources just being discovered in the region. Popular sentiment, though, ultimately gauges her appointment as a back-room deal to enable her eventual succession (Kanyana 2012; Nalugo 2012).

  14. 14.

    The Group of Seven Plus One was composed of Belgium, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Canada. See Government of Canada, (n.d.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Joanna R. Quinn

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  1. Joanna R. Quinn
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cape Town, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Cape Town, South Africa

    Jasmina Brankovic

  2. Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Cape Town, South Africa

    Hugo van der Merwe

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Quinn, J.R. (2018). Madly Off in All Directions: Civil Society and the Use of Customary Justice as Transitional Justice in Uganda. In: Brankovic, J., van der Merwe, H. (eds) Advocating Transitional Justice in Africa. Springer Series in Transitional Justice. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70417-3_7

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