Ugandan ex-child soldier guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity

The Guardian, 4 February 2021

The article reports on the landmark judgment of the International Criminal Court which saw Dominic Ongwen convicted of 61 individual charges of murder, rape, sexual slavery, abduction and torture as a commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in the violent conflict which occurred in Uganda in the mid-1980s. While acknowledging this historic judgement, Grace Achan, advocate for women who have survived war in Northern Uganda and member of the GSF Board, insisted on the importance of reparations for survivors of sexual violence to be able to reconstruct their lives: “My justice will be to see the lives of the victims changed [for the better]”. The article reports on the reactions of the many victims and witnesses to the crimes committed.