The Beyond Juba Project is a joint initiative of the Refugee Law Project (RLP), the Human Rights and Peace Network (HURIPEC), and the Faculty of Law (FOL), Makerere University. The project builds on the participating organisations' work on peace and conflict related issues in Uganda, and in particular reflects the outcome of a three day stakeholders dialogue under the same title which was hosted in Kampala by the three collaborating partners in December 2006.

Uganda’s post colonial history has been characterised by division and conflict.  One of the most violent and protracted of the conflicts is the 21 year war in northern Uganda waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army/Movement (LRA/M).  The current peace talks between the Government of Uganda (GoU) and the LRA/M, which are mediated by the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), are welcomed as a solution to attain sustainable peace in Uganda.  However, there are reservations about how the peace consultations are proceeding, and some stakeholders feel that the discussions around accountability and reconciliation may not result in process that is sufficiently comprehensive in ensuring sustainable peace in northern Uganda or in the country as a whole. For reconciliation to be effective, the northern Uganda conflict must be placed within a wider national context.

In the past there have been attempts to establish transitional justice mechanisms for Uganda. They have not related to broader political dynamics like decentralisation or gender, however. Another challenge is that current reconciliation initiatives like the Peace Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) view reconciliation in a localised fashion and therefore only allocate a small part of their budget to it. If the Juba Peace Talks offer hope for sustained peace and create opportunities for meaningful national reconciliation in Uganda, then considerable efforts to create a climate conducive to change should be made.

One such effort is the Beyond Juba Project, a three year project funded by SIDA and NORAD. The project constitutes of three pillars: (1) In-depth consultation and training with key stakeholders including different branches of government, (2) research on critical legal, and psychosocial issues for inclusion in the national reconciliation process and (3) a multi-layered public information campaign that reaches all sectors of society.

The Beyond Juba Project aims to generate support for a national reconciliation process in Uganda by demonstrating the extent to which conflicts and their legacies are a national problem and by assisting in the development of appropriate transitional justice mechanisms with which to address these legacies.

Uganda achieves sustainable peace.

• To persuade the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the GoU of the benefits of a national reconciliation process.
• To generate widespread public awareness for the potential contribution national reconciliation could play to sustainable peace, and to engage the public in a nation-building process.
• To create a more informed debate among donors about the need for a national reconciliation process in Uganda.
• To help give direction and provide leadership to groups seeking to promote a national reconciliation process by developing specific proposals for context appropriate transitional justice mechanisms.
• To ensure that these mechanisms allow both the GoU and civil society to have ownership over and play a key role in the process.
• To do this in a way which builds, rather than further undermines, Uganda's sense of sovereignty.