Juba Peace Talks Expected to Resume with “Make-or-Break” Agenda Item #3

Ugandan Human Rights Commissioner holds meeting with LRA’s Vincent Otti

Global Action Needed to End LRA War

The Situation

An Unresolved Crisis

History

The war in northern Uganda has raged now for 21 years, making it Africa's longest running conflict and as one senior U.N. official described it Posted April 3, 2008 by admin in Uncategorized

Children in Crisis

Abducted by a rebel army.
Required to walk miles each night in search of safety.
Forced to courageously take on the role of parent, teacher and caregiver in squalid displacement camps.

Child Soldiers

Waging an unpopular war with relatively no local support has forced the LRA to replenish its ranks with child soldiers abducted from insecure camps and villages in northern Uganda. Children are often forced into killing family members or other children before beginning difficult marches to rebel camps. Many have escaped or been rescued by the Ugandan military, but over 8,000 remain missing. Posted April 1, 2008 by admin in Uncategorized

Night Commuters

At the height of insecurity in northern Uganda as many as 40,000 child night commuters walked each day from unsafe rural camps and villages to more secure town centers. Targeted by the LRA for abduction and neglected by the Ugandan government, these children have been the primary victims in the nightmare created by two decades of fighting and neglect. Thousands of women and elderly were also among the ranks of the night commuters, whose numbers have dropped dramatically since peace talks between the LRA and Ugandan government began in July 2006.

Building Uganda’s Future

It is impossible to overestimate how much two decades of conflict, abduction and displacement has disrupted the educational system in northern Uganda. Entire generations of children have been denied access to adequate educational opportunities, from the primary to the university level. Attendance at the few schools that do exist is often interrupted by pervasive displacement and violence. Despite these challenges, thousands of children, recognizing they are the bedrock upon which northern Uganda Posted March 30, 2008 by admin in Uncategorized

Displacement Disaster

The continued displacement of 1.4 million people in northern Uganda, in the words of one UN official "the world's worst humanitarian crisis," is the single most disastrous consequence of the two decade war between the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GoU). Rampant insecurity, consistent human rights violations, inadequate healthcare infrastructure, and simmering land insecurity in the camps are vivid reminders that civilians have shouldered the suffering caused by the conflict. Posted March 29, 2008 by admin in Uncategorized

Insecurity and Inadequate Protection

Northerner's skepticism of the Government of Uganda's ability and willingness to protect them from violence dates back to the late 1980s, when military forces under the command of current President Yoweri Museveni were responsible for widespread massacres, destruction of valuable cattle stocks, and other human rights violations in northern Uganda. Posted March 28, 2008 by admin in Uncategorized

Human Rights Abuses and Marginalization

Freedom of movement is a fundamental human right enshrined in Uganda's constitution and national internally displaced person (IDP) policy. Consequently, the forced displacement and internment of over one million northern Ugandans represents a gross violation of individual and collective rights. The countless other crimes northerners have been made to endure at the hands of government security forces and the LRA, from rape to forced labor, must be understood within the context of displacement itself as a massive violation of human rights.