A lady walks along a foot path, adjacent to the old railway tracks in Gulu, Uganda. Credit: Jim Joel, creative commons license.
Author: Joyce Mutoka, Senior Programme Officer in JRR’s National Justice Programme.
GENEVA, 28 October, 2024 – In the aftermath of the International Crimes Division (ICD) of the High Court of Uganda’s landmark decision in the case against Thomas Kwoyelo, Justice Rapid Response’s (JRR) Senior Programme Office Joyce Mutoka reflects on this high profile case and on Uganda’s path to justice.
The court found the defendant guilty of 44 of the 93 counts that he was charged with in 2018. Kwoyelo was found guilty of international crimes including war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder, rape, torture, enslavement, unlawful imprisonment, pillaging and other grave offenses committed during the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency against the Government of Uganda which spanned for decades. More recently, Kwoyelo was sentenced to a 40-year jail term.
This ruling represents a long-awaited milestone in the long journey towards justice for victims and survivors of the insurgency. JRR wishes to congratulate all those who contributed to this historic conviction, in particular victims who are no longer with us today and who fought years to obtain justice.
Some characteristics of the ICD are commendable and can be replicated in similar nationally led accountability processes. This includes the fact that it is locally accessible with most of the sessions in the case being held in the same region where violations took place which allowed for communities affected by the conflict to follow the trial unfolding. It also represents an example for states leading the prosecution of international crimes which has the ripple effect of increasing local capacities in the longer term, in part through the technical support provided by organizations such as JRR.
The process was, however, not without its challenges. For one, there were some concerns around the length of the process with 15 years having passed between Kwoyelo’s arrest and his conviction. While some of the delays can be attributed to “growing pains” inherent to new mechanisms such as the ICD including questions of amnesties that required a Supreme Court ruling, some were linked to other factors such as capacity challenges which prevented the proceedings from running uninterrupted. Other challenges presented themselves in relation to the unprecedented nature of
the case For example, the complexities of the victim-perpetrator dynamic inherent in the case given that Kwoyelo was forcibly conscripted into the LRA as a teenager following his abduction in the early years of the conflict before rising through the ranks to become a mid-level commander.
Looking forward, the ICD now has the task of making decisions around the remedies to be provided to victims in the case. Building on six years of providing highly technical support in this case, JRR continues to provide support through Victim Participation and Legal Advisory experts at the request of the Office of the Public Counsel for Victims, which also faces challenges including lack of a clear legal framework and financial struggles for meaningful engagement with victims and survivors.
Over the years, complementing the support provided by other partners, JRR has provided a range of expertise from its roster in this case, including support that contributed to the successful prosecution of 10 counts related to sexual and gender-based violence, including rape as a crime against humanity. JRR experts provided support through peer-to-peer mentorship with the team of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) in areas including prosecution, witness protection, investigations, psychosocial support, and legal advice.
JRR remains a committed partner of international and national justice actors as well as civil society organizations involved in accountability efforts. The organization wishes to acknowledge the contributions of the United Kingdom and Canada as well as the support of States which contributed to JRR’s Rapid Response Fund, all of which made our work in Uganda possible.
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Joyce Mutoka is a Senior Programme Officer in the JRR’s National Justice Programme. She