The Quest for Justice: Joseph Kony & the Lord’s Resistance Army
Open AccessThis thesis examines the Uganda-Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) conflict, to include the nature of the offenses claimed against the LRA and Uganda, as well as the general nature of the conflict under international humanitarian law. While this conflict has some attributes of an international armed conflict under the 1949 Geneva Conventions and the 1977 Additional Protocols, it has been largely non-international in nature and LRA members are likely unprivileged belligerents subject to prosecution for violations of Uganda penal law, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This thesis offers a degree of focus and clarity on certain issues involving international humanitarian law that have not been previously addressed.This thesis makes a unique contribution to the scholarly literature on this conflict by addressing a gap in the field. This thesis provides in-depth analysis of international and Uganda criminal law, as applied to the LRA over the past 28 years. On one hand, even though Uganda courts may be willing, there are substantial problems with adjudicating serious offenses in those courts. While the administration of justice in Uganda has experienced many positive changes over the past 20 years, there are still important shortcomings in a judiciary that has been subject to political pressures, gaps and ambiguities in statutory law, and with corrupt and sometimes ineffective Uganda law enforcement entities. There are also significant temporal and subject matter limitations with the prosecution of war crimes and crimes against humanity through the International Criminal Court (ICC). This thesis recommends that the ICC establish an agreement (treaty) based tribunal under Article 93 of the Rome Statute—using ICC staff and judges in an observer status at an Arusha-based tribunal—that combines its work with Ugandan judges to prosecute the full range of offenses under Uganda law. This approach would serve the object and purpose of the Rome Statute itself; this court would help end the impunity for the perpetrators of serious crimes and contribute to the prevention of such crimes through effective national prosecutions and enhanced national capacity.
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