Judge pushes for war crime victims reparation fund

The deputy head of the International Crime Division (ICD) of the Uganda High Court, Justice Susan Okalany, has appealed to war victims to task their local governments and MPs with fast-tracking the passing of the Transitional Justice Bill, following the recent sentencing of one of the former Lord’s Resistance Army commanders, Thomas Kwoyelo. According to a report in The Monitor, Okalany said the government, through the ICD, has demonstrated that it has the capacity to try cases like that of Kwoyelo's but lacked a trust fund for reparation and compensation. Kwoyelo's sentencing proceedings is set to start on 16 October. The judge said the national transitional justice policy was approved by Cabinet in 2019 but Parliament still needs to pass it. ‘The transitional justice policy ... recognises victims as key participants in any process, post-conflict process, who deserve to be compensated and deserve to receive reparation,’ she said. She added: ‘...we are a division of the High Court and under our establishment, we do not have provision for a trust fund for victims. The policy recognises the need for that kind of compensation but the mechanism is missing up to now. There is no mechanism of compensation for victims, so if court orders, I believe the government will find a way to provide such compensation to victims,’ she said.