Report

Enhancing Grassroots Involvement in Transitional Justice Debates: A Report on Consultations held with Victims and Civil Society Organizations in West Nile, Acholi, Lango and Teso Sub Regions in Northern Uganda

“This report is aimed at informing JLOS and other relevant stakeholders working on issues pertaining to victims in northern Uganda about the needs of these victims, as expressed by the individuals themselves. Between November 2010 and 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 the conflict in northern Uganda. These consultations were entitled “Enhancing grassroots involvement in transitional justice debates” and covered the themes of truth telling, traditional justice, reparations and gender justice. The consultations were aimed at complementing the countrywide consultations by the Justice, Law and Order Sector (JLOS) on truth seeking and traditional justice. The key findings presented in the report are a synthesis of the victims’ voices on what their views are on truth seeking,traditional justice, reparations and gender justice. With regards to truth seeking, victims unanimously expressed a strong desire for a national truth seeking process that would expose the causes of the conflict as well as the atrocities committed against them. In addition to this national process, community‐level truth seeking mechanisms are also required to allow for the victims to know the truth concerning their missing or abducted relatives.”