Tag Archives: truth

TJI Newsletter Sept 2011 Image

JRP featured in the September TJI Newsletter

TJI Newsletter Sept 2011 Image
Photos from the September 2011 edition of the TJI newsletter featuring JRP

JRP is featured on page 5 of the University of Ulster’s Transitional Justice Institute’s September newsletter. The mention, which appears in an article on page 5, is related to JRP’s Lindsay McClain receiving a bursary to attend TJI’s 2011 Summer School from June 13-17, 2011. McClain attended the course on public inquires and truth.

To read the full article, click here.

JRP is grateful to TJI for supporting the capacity-building of our staff.

Missing Stories: Truth-seeking Processes in Northern Uganda, Policy Brief No. 3

By Roza Freriks and Lino Owor Ogora

JRP-IJR Policy Brief No. 3

This policy brief explores the continued relevance of truth‐seeking as an instrument of transitional justice and peace building in Northern Uganda. Over two years after the dissolution of the Juba Peace Talks in November 2008, several questions remain unanswered regarding how truth‐seeking might promote accountability and reconciliation in Northern Uganda.

From November 2010 to 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, Teso, and West Nile sub‐regions, focused on truth‐telling, traditional justice, reparations and gender justice within the context of Uganda’s transitional justice processes.

This policy brief captures victims’ views on truth‐seeking in Northern Uganda. During the consultations it became evident that victims across Northern Uganda want to understand what exactly took place during the conflict and why. They insist that only after learning the truth will they be able to forgive and reconcile with the perpetrators. This policy brief is intended to inform relevant stakeholders of the need for a truth‐telling process in Uganda, the challenges such a process presents, and propose a way forward for the Ugandan truth‐telling process.

To download the full brief, click here.

A woman lays a wreath at the Attiak memorial service, 2007

The Cooling of Hearts: Community truth-telling in Acholi-land

A woman lays a wreath at the Attiak memorial service, 2007
A woman lays a wreath at the Attiak memorial service, 2007

Recent national and international debates on truth and reconciliation in Uganda have emphasized the importance of incorporating local level mechanisms into a transitional justice strategy. This report seeks to contribute to this discussion by focusing on local level mechanisms in Acholi-land and determining how these might promote truth-telling and reconciliation at the community level.

 Underlying the research are three main objectives: to assess whether or not grassroots, war-affected persons in the region want a truth-telling process; to assess the possibilities of adapting local mechanisms to promote truth and reconciliation at the community level; and lastly, to present the results, observations and recommendations found in this report to relevant policy-makers (the Government of Uganda, local-level leadership in Uganda, and the international community). The research reveals that there is indeed a need for a truth-telling process in northern

Uganda. Few atrocities have been documented or acknowledged publicly – most are contested and highly controversial. As a consequence, victims struggle to survive emotionally, socially and economically with tragic memories of loss, and with little to no high-level acknowledgement by the

Government of Uganda or by most of the LRA high command.

 To access the report, click here.