'Somehow this whole process became so artificial': Exploring the transitional justice implementation gap in Uganda

This article explores a key challenge in contemporary international efforts to promote transitional justice (TJ) in nontransitioning, conflict-affected states: the ‘implementation gap,’ in which policies are designed and funded but neither enacted nor implemented. Findings based on long-term qualitative fieldwork in Uganda indicate the implementation gap is co-constituted by technocratic donor approaches and domestic elite political maneuvering in a semi-authoritarian regime. The interaction between the two produces two forms of political artifice: ‘isomorphic mimicry’ and calculated stasis, which stall the emergence of substantive TJ reform. Findings are relevant to the wide range of nontransitioning contexts where TJ is promoted by international donors and have important implications for its claimed potential to catalyze or restore civic trust in political systems in the aftermath of massive human rights violations

Justice in the world’s most difficult places

Anna Macdonald introduces the JSRP’s newly published Special Issue on the local realities of law and justice. Download the full issue

Between norms, politics contests and social upheavals: justice in the JSRP’s research sites

In this blog, Tom Kirk and Anna Macdonald explore the JSRP’s research on local justice mechanisms in conflict-affected states. They argue that the accessibility and legitimacy of justice institutions cannot be assumed, and that those wishing to engage them must understand them as embedded in wider social norms, political contests and upheavals

Being normal: Stigmatization of Lord's Resistance Army returnees as 'moral experience' in post-war northern Uganda

The literature on Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) returnees in Acholiland, northern Uganda tells us that those who returned from the rebel group are likely to experience stigma and social exclusion. While the term is deployed frequently, ‘stigma’ is not a well-developed concept and most of the evidence we have comes from accounts of returnees themselves. Focusing instead on the ‘stigmatizers,’ this article theorises stigmatisation as part of the ‘moral experience’ of regulating post-war social repair. Through interview-based and ethnographic methods, it finds that stigmatisation of LRA returnees takes many forms and serves multiple functions, calling into question whether this catch-all term actually obscures more than it illuminates. While stigmatisation is usually practised as a form of ‘social control’, its function can be ‘re-integrative’ rather than purely exclusionary. Through the northern Ugandan case study, this article seeks to advance conceptual and empirical understanding of the manifestations and functions of stigmatisation in spaces of return, challenging the logic underpinning those interventions which seek to reduce it

The trial of Thomas Kwoyelo: opportunity or spectre – a new paper by Anna Macdonald and Holly Porter

In this blog post, Anna Macdonald and Holly Porter examine the political and social dynamics that shape local perspectives on the first war crimes prosecution of a former Lord’s Resistance Army fighter, Thomas Kwoyelo. This week they published an open-access article in Africa, exploring these issues in depth, based on long-term research on the case since it began in 2009

The trial of Thomas Kwoyelo: opportunity of spectre? Reflections from the ground on the first LRA prosecution

The trial of Thomas Kwoyelo – the first war crimes prosecution of a former Lord's Resistance Army fighter, and the only domestic war crimes prosecution in Uganda at the time of writing – has been packed with drama, intrigue and politics. The article considers what Kwoyelo's trial means for those most affected by the crimes he allegedly committed, and, more broadly, what it means for the ‘transitional justice’ project in Uganda. The article is concerned primarily with how the trial has been interpreted ‘on the ground’ in Acholiland: by local leadership; by those with a personal relationship to Kwoyelo; by direct victims of his alleged crimes; and by those who were not. Responses to the trial have been shaped by people's specific wartime experiences and if or how his prosecution relates to their current circumstances – as well as by the profound value of social harmony and distrust of higher authorities to dispense justice. We conclude with a discussion of the relevance of our findings for the practice of ‘transitional justice’ across the African continent

Digital Techniques for Documenting and Preserving Cultural Heritage

In this unique collection the authors present a wide range of interdisciplinary methods to study, document, and conserve material cultural heritage. The methods used serve as exemplars of best practice with a wide variety of cultural heritage objects having been recorded, examined, and visualised. The objects range in date, scale, materials, and state of preservation and so pose different research questions and challenges for digitization, conservation, and ontological representation of knowledge. Heritage science and specialist digital technologies are presented in a way approachable to non-scientists, while a separate technical section provides details of methods and techniques, alongside examples of notable applications of spatial and spectral documentation of material cultural heritage, with selected literature and identification of future research. This book is an outcome of interdisciplinary research and debates conducted by the participants of the COST Action TD1201, Colour and Space in Cultural Heritage, 2012–16 and is an Open Access publication available under a CC BY-NC-ND licence.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_arc_cdh/1000/thumbnail.jp

Pursuing justice in northern Uganda #LSEreturn

Anna Macdonald and Holly Porter explore issues of justice, accountability and social repair in the context of postconflict northern Ugand