NAME OF MECHANISM

International Criminal Court

PERIOD

29 July 2004 – present

MANDATE AND OPERATIONS

Mandate: In December 2003, President Yoweri Museveni requested that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate war crimes committed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group in northern Uganda. The ICC started its formal investigation on 29 July 2004 and charged five LRA commanders with crimes against humanity and war crimes.

RESOURCES

International Criminal Court official website: Situation in Uganda

RESULTS

Prosecutor v. Joseph Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen is before Pre-Trial Chamber II. The ICC issued arrest warrants for the top five commanders of the LRA in May 2005. The case against one commander, Raska Lukwiya, was dropped following his death. The remaining accused are still at large.

In May 2011, ICC officials urged northern Ugandans to be patient in response to widespread criticism of the court’s delays in arresting the five LRA commanders it has charged [Daily Monitor | 3 May 2011].

The ICC has not charged any government-aligned actors – a controversial decision given that both rebel and government forces have been implicated in grave human rights violations in northern Uganda.

BACKGROUND

Joseph Kony has been charged with 12 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes, including murder, sexual enslavement, rape and forced enlisting of children. Vincent Otti has been charged with 11 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes. Okot Odhiambo has been charged with two counts of crimes against humanity and eight counts of war crimes, and Dominic Ongwen with three counts of crimes against humanity and four counts of war crimes [Hague Justice Portal]. It is rumoured that Vincent Otti, Kony's second-in-command, was killed following an argument with Kony, but this remains unconfirmed. Kony has claimed that Otti is still alive under house arrest [BBC | 23 Jan 2008].

Although the ICC acted on a referral by the Ugandan government, the ICC's arrest warrants are controversial amongst civil society organisations, government officials and international critics who view the indictments as a stumbling block to a lasting peace agreement. Kony has stated that he will not sign a peace treaty while the warrants are still in place. President Museveni has asked the ICC to maintain the charges against the LRA until a peace agreement is reached, but has stated that once an agreement has been negotiated, the commanders may face local justice only [BBC | 12 Mar 2008]. In 2006, the Ugandan government and the LRA began peace talks in Juba, Southern Sudan. These continued, with a number of setbacks, until December 2008, when they ended with the launch of Operation Lightening Thunder, a collaborative military offensive by regional governments aimed at forcing Kony to sign the Juba Peace Agreement. Although a number of LRA members have surrendered over the years, since 2008, the LRA has continued attacking civilians and soldiers in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, although it has mostly been chased from northern Uganda [Beyond Juba].

On 9 March 2010, the Ugandan parliament passed the International Criminal Court (ICC) Act, which was tabled three years earlier. The law enables Uganda to cooperate with the ICC in investigating and prosecuting crimes against humanity and war crimes. It also allows for accused persons to be transferred to the ICC, as well as for the ICC to conduct its proceedings in Uganda, although critics have noted that it can be used to side-step the ICC arrest warrants. The bill guarantees the Ugandan president’s immunity from prosecution.

SOURCES

[BBC | 23 Jan 2008] 
[BBC | 12 Mar 2008] 
[Beyond Juba] 
[Daily Monitor | 3 May 2011] 
[Hague Justice Portal]