Post Atrocity and Social Justice in Uganda

3 credits · Undergraduate

This course critically examines the needs of a community in the aftermath of conflict and explores various approaches to peace-building and justice as attempted in northern Uganda. Uganda has struggled, and continues to struggle, with difficult decisions about how to address legacies of violence and human rights violations. For two decades (1986-2006), northern Uganda was the site of fear and violence as the rebel group ‘the Lord’s Resistance Army’ terrorized communities with brutality and kidnapping, creating and maintaining a force of attacking child soldiers. Also accused of atrocity is the government and its army, the UPDF. Uganda came into the spotlight as local and international human rights practitioners debated peace-vs-justice, especially with regards to the imposition of international criminal justice (the first indictments from the International Criminal Court in 2005; first and only conviction happened in March 2021) and the abilities of traditional mechanisms of justice to address mass atrocity and promote reconciliation. There have also been questions about the need or usefulness of a truth and reconciliation commission or possibly the need for vetting in the Ugandan UPDF, (among the options of mechanisms to pursue justice and reconciliation). This study abroad course explores practical questions of transitional justice using Uganda as a case study.