37 - Courts, conflict and complementarity in Uganda

Summary

There may be a tendency in some circles not to see what has happened in Uganda through the lens of complementarity. To date, a national investigation into those Lord's Resistance Army (‘LRA’) leaders under arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (‘ICC’) has yet to be opened, and any question of a challenge to the jurisdiction of the ICC is premature as remarked on by the Court itself. But at the same time, the case of Uganda highlights many important aspects of how complementarity may operate in practice. In Uganda, the ICC arrest warrants were a central issue in the peace talks between the government of Uganda and the LRA held at Juba from 2006 to 2008. This caused mediators and the parties to seek innovative solutions to accountability questions that sought to be compatible with the Rome Statute. It was significant that those involved did not seek to argue that traditional justice by itself would suffice to fulfil complementarity. The proposal put forward during the Juba talks represents a comprehensive vision for national accountability which, if it were fully implemented, would be highly significant for Uganda moving forward out of years of conflict. The fact that the final agreement negotiated at Juba was not signed of course complicates the pursuit of this vision.