Fr. Charles Onen
Parliament has granted leave to Father Charles Onen (Laroo-Pece Division) to present a private member’s bill to enact a law on the National Transitional Justice System, which seeks to provide a platform for reconciliation and accountability when national conflicts occur.
Onen argued that the bill is intended to enact a Transitional Justice Law to operationalize the National Transitional Justice Policy and to address all facets of transitional justice, ensuring accountability, truth-telling, reparations, and reconciliation.
Onen defended the enactment of the law, arguing that since the 1962 independence, Uganda has experienced cycles of violence, political instability, and gross human rights violations, especially during the brutal regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote and during the protracted LRA insurgency in Northern Uganda, among other conflicts, which have left the nation with deep scars that need healing.
“The different episodes of political instability hove left deep scars on the nation’s fabric arising from the severe violence that has claimed countless lives in the form of extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, loss of property, and torture, perpetuating a legacy of fear, mistrust, and impunity,” noted Onen.
“Whereas the National Resistance Movement Government has made tremendous effort towards resolution of conflict and maintenance of peace and security within the country through attempts such as the Juba peace talks, the establishment of the International Crimes Division of the High Court, and the development of the National Transitional Justice Policy of 2019, there is still a need to address the historical wrongs through measures that will embrace accountability, truth, reconciliation, reparation, and institutional and legal reform,” added Onen.
