Our friends at the National NGO Forum have recently launched a new website, the Uganda National NGO Directory. This useful resource profiles NGOs around the country and provides programming information and contact details.
JRP is listed in the Directory at this link: http://www.ugandangodirectory.org/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=viewlink&link_id=217&Itemid=2.
Take a minute and explore some of the other great organizations operating in Uganda!
On Tuesday, September 20, 2011, JRP held a one-hour talk show on Arua radio station Voice of Life FM 100.9. The show featured JRP’s Sylvia Opinia, Lindsay McClain, Isaac Okwir, Mzee Nahari Oyaa of the Madi-Lugbara Cultural Foundation, and presenter Jonathan Driliga.
The purpose of the talk show was to discuss International Day of Peace, celebrated every year on September 21st, and the programmes scheduled for West Nile. JRP, in conjunction with the MAYANK Development Association, organized celebrations in Yumbe. Survivors of the UNRF II conflict in Yumbe who have formed a JRP-supported theatre group performed a drama that traced the historical events of the UNRF II conflict and the 2002 Yumbe peace accords.
You can now listen to a full audio recording of the Voice of Life talk show programme here.
JRP’s Gender Justice Research Offier Nancy Apio wrote an article on formerly-abducted women that appeared in the Peace X Peace blog on September 19, 2011.
The article chronicles the experiences of a woman named Anne, who was abducted by the LRA as a child.
You can view the article on our website here, or by visiting the Peace X Peace blog here.
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.
We have just posted new photos from last week’s community theater follow-up in Abia village in Lango sub-region. In addition to Abia, JRP also has ongoing theater initiatives in Mukura, Lukodi and Yumbe.
On Thursday, September 15, 2011, we visited Abia Primary School to follow-up with students participating in our community theater project. The students have developed a drama that highlights the situation in Abia and how the conflict has exacerbated the rampancy of HIV/AIDS.
The community-wide performance of this drama will tentatively take place on September 28th in Abia trading center.
To check out the photos, click here.
We will post photos from last week’s community performance in Mukura soon.
Today, JRP is pleased to announce the launch of its new website to our friends and colleagues in Gulu and abroad. Notifications were sent to our mailing list, to a regional contact group, and our Twitter and Facebook accounts.
To see highlights of some of the many features on the site, please visit http://myemail.
Thank you for your continued support of our work.
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.
Based on views from grassroots communities, we have released a series of policy briefs that elaborate on these four areas and provide a series of recommendations to the Government of Uganda, cultural institutions, the International Criminal Court and other stakeholders.
To read more about each of the briefs, visit the links below:
Traditional Justice and War Crimes in Northern Uganda
JRP-IJR Policy Brief No. 1
By Lino Owor Ogora and Tim Murithi
Pay Us so We Can Forget: Reparations for Victims and Affected Communities in Northern Uganda
JRP-IJR Policy Brief No. 2
By Lindsay McClain and Allan Ngari
Missing Stories: Truth-seeking Processes in Northern Uganda
JRP-IJR Policy Brief No. 3
By Roza Freriks and Lino Owor Ogora
Gender Justice and Reconciliation in Northern Uganda
JRP-IJR Policy Brief No. 4
By Sylvia Opinia and Friederike Bubenzer
We will be officially launching these policy briefs in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more details on dates and locations.
Note: IJR has posted the same briefs on their blog here.
This month, JRP is pleased to introduce a new quarterly newsletter, Community Voices. The newsletter aims to provide a series of brief and simple narratives from victims of conflict in northern Uganda and is compiled by our Community Mobilization department.
This first edition focuses on West Nile and profiles two women who were affected by ambushes on the highway en route to Arua. On September 19, 2002, the LRA attacked a Nile Coach bus travelling northwest from Karuma. Norah’s son, Nevil Washibra, was abducted by the LRA and has not been heard from since. Jane survived death during the same incident and now lives with a scar of bullet fragments, an amputated arm and loss of sight in her left eye. Norah and Jane’s stories are told in their own words. In addition to profiling Jane and Norah, this edition highlights community theatre in the Lukodi community in Gulu district.
We invite victims and survivors to send in their individual or group stories for publication in future editions of the newsletter. For more information, please email info@justiceandreconciliation with “Community Voices” in the subject line.
To view the first edition of Community Voices, please click here.
Today our partners at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) in South Africa released a report on a regional consultation on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and community-level reconciliation that JRP participated in earlier this year.
The report, titled “The ICC and Community-Level Reconciliation: In-Country Perspectives,” outlines discussions from the regional consultation held in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 21 to 22 February 2011. Twenty-three participants from IJR’s partner organisations (including JRP) from seven African countries namely Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe participated in the consultation. Participants were drawn from the International Criminal Court, governments, international non-governmental organisations, civil society organisations, multilateral agencies and academia. The objective of the consultation was to engage practitioners in the field of transitional justice in assessing how the interventions of the International Criminal Court (ICC) are impacting upon community-level reconciliation in what the Rome Statute refers to as situation countries.
To read the report,click here. JRP’s Lino Owor Ogora’s presentation is highlighted on page 15 (Section 8.1).
According to Ogora, “It is necessary to systematically document the essence and procedures of traditional justice mechanisms which can serve as a component of the wider transitional justice architecture adopted by countries.”
JRP is seeking to recruit a Research Assistant for the Gender Justice Department to effectively and efficiently undertake research. S/he will assist the researchers in all stages of the research project from planning, implementation and evaluations. Success in this position will depend on the candidate’s ability to work under minimum supervision, organize& conduct research and efficiency in handling children.
For more information on how to apply, view the vacancy announcement here.
Note: The deadline to submit an application is Friday, August 26, 2011.