UGANDA

COMPENDIUM OF CONFLICTS IN UGANDA
ANNEX 1
THE DRAFT NATIONAL RECONCILIATION BILL, 2011
MEMORANDUM
1. The object of this Bill is to promote national unity, peace and reconciliation by
providing for the investigation and full disclosure of gross violations of human rights
committed since Uganda attained independence in 1962.
2. Since independence, Uganda has been characterised by violent conflicts and gross
violations of human rights especially through the conflicts in Acholi, Teso, Lango, West
Nile, Western Uganda, Luwero and Karamoja.
3. Although the Government has, in the past, taken measures to address the violations
by establishing policies for the purpose of achieving closure with regards to past
oppression, while simultaneously working toward national security, unity, sustainable
peace and reconciliation, to date, there is no permanent record of the causes, motives
and perpetrators of these conflicts or human rights abuses which have coloured the
history of Uganda.
4. Objective III of the National Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy requires
the Government to make every effort to integrate all peoples of Uganda while recognizing
the existence of their ethnic, religious, ideological, political and cultural diversity, and to
establish and nurture institutions and procedures for the resolution of conflicts fairly
and peacefully.
5. Reconciliation through dialogue is integral to the attainment of sustainable national
peace, unity and security and during the course of the Juba peace talks the Government
recognized the need for an overarching national justice and reconciliation framework,
including alternative justice mechanisms such as traditional reconciliation and truth
telling processes, alternative sentencing, reparations and any other formal institutions
or mechanisms;
6. At present, the Amnesty Act, Cap. 294 constitutes the only effort that recognises
exemption from responsibility for violations of human rights. However even under
the Amnesty Act, the amnesty is limited to violations arising out of war against the
Government and is restricted to violations occurring after 1986. Significantly, the
Amnesty Act does not require full disclosure as a condition of granting amnesty, there is
little or no participation of the victims and the people of Uganda, and the Act does not
provide for reconciliation.
7. The Bill seeks to provide for reconciliation through a process of national healing which
integrates the people of Uganda in a comprehensive, independent and impartial analysis
of the history and manifestations of conflict, including the human rights violations,
abuses and crimes committed since 1962.
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