Ever since the International Criminal Court became involved with the situation in northern Uganda, considerable debate has emerged regarding the effectiveness of local and international justice mechanisms in addressing mass human rights violations committed in the course of complex conflicts. Some local and international actors have promoted traditional mechanisms, while others have been more supportive of international ones. 

These debates have created a polarisation between retributive and restorative approaches to justice, and are seen as a stumbling block to the peace process between the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the Lord's Resistance Army/Movement (LRA/M) currently going on in Juba, Southern Sudan. How much of retributive or restorative justice is needed to satisfy the demands of the local and the international communities, respectively? This dilemma raises the basic question as to how and when international justice and local justice intersect. 

This debate has been heightened by Clause 2.1, in Agenda Item No. 3 (on Accountability and Reconciliation) of the Juba peace talks, which enjoins the GoU and the LRA rebels to, “promote national legal arrangements, consisting of formal and non formal institutions and measures for ensuring justice and reconciliation with respect to the conflict” .  As a central part of the framework for accountability and reconciliation, the agreement obliges the parties to promote—after necessary modifications—the traditional justice mechanisms practiced in areas affected by conflict (Clause 3.1).

This inclusion raises critical questions such as: What shape should modified traditional justice practices take in order for people to feel that their values are still respected? How will such modification deal with highly entrenched notions of patriarchy? How can such modifications inform the penal reform process in Uganda and indeed affect the current constitutional order?

This element of the project aims to contribute to the codification of traditional justice processes in Uganda, through close scrutiny of traditional practices in a variety of conflict affected settings in Uganda. It will seek to identify those norms and values which can be codified in such a way that they complement formal national and international legal processes.