Tag Archives: Community Mobilization

Planning and Budgeting for the Well-Being of the Child: Statement on considerations for peace, justice and reconciliation

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A girl participates in the Gulu district Day of the African Child celebrations, 2010
A girl participates in the Gulu district Day of the African Child celebrations, 2010

 

This year, as we join Africa in celebration of the Day of the African Child (DAC), JRP wishes to emphasis the need to reflect on the unique peace, justice and reconciliation issues hindering the well-being of children affected by conflict. In line with this year’s theme, we offer specific recommendations for planning and budgeting for the well-being of children affected by conflict, with critical reflections on the situation of children in northern Uganda and lessons for other contexts.

To access the statement, click here

Mucwini Community Dialogue, 6 June 2010

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JRP held a community dialogue on June 6 in conjunction with Mega Fm, which discussed a broad range of justice issues, including the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Uganda’s new War Crimes Division, and TJ mechanisms. Three key themes emerged from the dialogue:

  • The importance of knowing the truth
  • The need for compensation
  • The question of accountability for government perpetrators

 Over 200 people were in attendance, and the meeting created an opportunity for the Mucwini community to interact with their local leaders and discuss these important TJ issues.

Grassroots Perspectives on Return and Reconciliation: Report of a dialogue in Kitgum Matidi [2]

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In this community dialogue report, respondents discuss some of the many problems faced by those living in areas affected by the conflict in northern Uganda. The issues mentioned include the reintegration of formerly-abducted youth, disputes over land amongst those returning from captivity and from displaced persons camps and the collapse of traditional family structures through family breakdown, the phenomenon of child-headed households and a loss of respect for parents and elders.

 Traditional spiritual understandings, particularly those related to the burial of people killed in the conflict, are used by many of the respondents to explain the hardships faced by their communities and to formulate possible solutions.

 To access the report, click here.

Grassroots Perspectives on Return and Reconciliation: Report of a dialogue in Padibe

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In this community dialogue, respondents voice their views on the challenges affecting their communities in the wake of decades of violent conflict in northern Uganda. The issues discussed include the unexploded ordinance scattered throughout the region, disputes over land ownership amongst those returning from conflict or from displaced persons camps, the negative effects of humanitarian aid and the issues that arise as former LRA attempt to return to civilian society.

 The comments of many of the respondents reveal a deep distrust of the Ugandan government as well as a strong faith in traditional spiritual beliefs, often used as a means of making sense of and developing solutions to many of the problems faced by war-affected communities.

 To access the report, click here.

A community member shares his views at a JRP community dialogue

Victims’ Voices: JRP community dialogues, 2008

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A community member shares his views at a JRP community dialogue
A community member shares his views at a JRP community dialogue

This report presents the diverging opinions that exist among the war-affected people in northern Uganda concerning how post-conflict issues of justice and reconciliation should be handled.

These responses were gathered by JRP camp focal persons from four community dialogues conducted in Kitgum and Amuru districts in 2008. The dialogues present opinions of participants about how reconciliation and healing can be promoted among the war-affected communities in northern Uganda.

They indicate that while many people in northern Uganda are of the view perpetrators of war crimes need to be forgiven, a significant majority would also like to see some form of accountability meted out. The views of war-affected persons about the role of local mechanisms in post-conflict reconciliation and healing in northern Uganda also feature in the dialogues. While it has always been assumed that war-affected communities wholeheartedly support the use of local mechanisms such as mato oput, it is also interesting to note that a significant minority have reservations about the effectiveness and relevance of these mechanisms. Equally interesting and controversial is the opinion of respondents about who is responsible for the conflict in northern Uganda.

To access the report, click here.

Youth in the LRA

Sharing the Burden of the Past: Peer Support and Self-Help among Former LRA Youth

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Youth in the LRA
Youth in the LRA

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)’s use of abducted children and youth has been much researched, and the horrors of their experiences in captivity and difficulties reintegrating into their communities recorded. Nonetheless, the existing disarmament, demobilization and reintegration strategies pursued to date are brief and insufficient interventions.

 This project was conducted by Justice and Reconciliation Project and Quaker Peace & Social Witness. Both organizations had encountered in the course of previous research the existence of self-formed groups of formerly abducted persons (FAPs) / former-LRA, and wanted to assess the role they could and did play in the process of grassroots level reintegration and reconciliation.

 Our findings suggest that former LRA peer support groups are an important and effective vehicle for reintegration and reconciliation, all the more so given the paucity of alternative long-term reintegration provision. Former LRA peer groups positively affect:

  • economic reintegration including provision of livelihoods and microfinance
  • social inclusion and reintegration
  • community reconciliation
  • psychosocial development
  • cultural education and reconnection

To access the report, click here.

Grassroots Perspectives of Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Report of the Dialogue in Kitgum Matidi [1]

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With the peace versus justice debate in Northern Uganda reaching a crescendo, different views have been expressed, with the majority focusing on peace through amnesty and a process of reconciliation. Local politicians, civil society organizations (CSOs), cultural and religious leaders have spoken strongly on behalf of the Northern population in support of forgiveness and reconciliation of the LRA, without necessarily consulting with grass-roots people they represent.

The dialogue below was conducted by the JRP in the internally displaced camp of Kitgum Matidi on the 9th of November 2006. It explores a variety of views of grass-roots actors on the theme of forgiveness and reconciliation. It finds that no general consensus exists on the desire or will to extend forgiveness to the LRA at this time. For some, forgiveness is not a choice but is derived out of the reality in which they live. “As for forgiveness, it appears like we have no option but to accept it. This is because we do not have weapons like our brothers in the bush. Since we do not have the weapons, we have no option but to accept.”

 Grass-roots participants in the dialogue did not agree that mato oput, a process of restorative justice leading to a ceremony designed to promote reconciliation of two conflicting parities, could or should be performed in the context of on-going war.

 The sequencing of peace and justice is viewed as extremely important by some grassroots actors: peace is a pre-requisite of reconciliation, and peace entails the ability to return and reconstruct homesteads, livelihoods, and fulfillment of basic human rights and freedoms. As one woman stated, “take a look at the camps….am I supposed to forgive from this mass homestead? For me to forgive I feel we should first go back home, so that I can forgive the person who hurt me from my own homestead.”

To access the report, click here.