Uganda
As a consequence of the 1986-2006 conflict between government forces and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), it has been estimated that some 75,000 persons were abducted in northern Uganda.
The fate of thousands of these people remains unknown. The LRA, headed by Joseph Kony, committed extensive violations of human rights across northern Uganda and also in neighboring countries.
A report on Unlawful Detention and Abuse in Unauthorized Places of Detention in Uganda, published by Human Rights Watch in March 2022 found evidence of unlawful detention, torture, and abuses “with impunity, despite Uganda’s Constitution and other domestic laws prohibiting and criminalizing such acts, despite those acts being a violation of Uganda’s binding obligations under international human rights law, and despite the (Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights) report and recommendations. During the two months leading up to and after Uganda’s January 14, 2021, general elections, less than a year after the parliamentary report was released, government security forces unlawfully detained, and forcibly disappeared government critics, opposition members, and peaceful protestors. While the authorities have released some detainees, the fate and whereabouts of many others is still unknown, leaving their families to continue to search for answers.”
Uganda is a state party to a number of international human rights mechanisms including the UN Convention against Torture, the UN Human Rights Council, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. It signed the Rome Statute in 1999 and ratified it in 2002.
In January 2016, the first major hearing involving a former LRA official was conducted at the International Criminal Court. Dominic Ongwen, a child soldier who later became an LRA leader, was charged with 70 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in northern Uganda. On 4 February 2021, Trial Chamber IX found Ongwen guilty of 61 crimes between 1 July 2002 and 31 December 2005. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison on 6 May 2021, and the sentence was confirmed by the Appeals Chamber on 15 December 2022.
