"In the interests of justice?" The International Criminal Court, peace talks and the failed quest for war crimes accountability in northern Uganda

This article analyzes the first peace talks to take place against the backdrop of an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation: the Juba Talks between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda (2006–2008). Drawing on field research and original source material, it departs from well-worn peace versus justice debates and provides new empirical material to explore how the presence of the court shaped domestic political dynamics at Juba. It argues that at the level of broad rhetoric, the presence of the court created significant discord between negotiating parties. On a practical level, however, it created space for consensus, but not the type envisaged by international justice promoters. The court came to be seen by both sides as an intervention that needed to be contained and controlled. This resulted in the politically expedient Agreement on Accountability and Reconciliation, which showcased a transitional justice “tool-kit,” but was based on a shared desire to evade the jurisdiction of international criminal justice. Given its practical complexity, the transitional justice agreement was ultimately rejected by Joseph Kony, who became increasingly distrustful of his own negotiating team at Juba. In findings relevant to other contexts, the article presents in-depth analyses of how domestic political dynamics around the ICC intervention produced a national transitional justice framework designed to protect both parties from war crimes accountability

Four year follow-up of a randomised controlled trial comparing open and laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication in children

The article examines why some postconflict societies defer the recovery of those who forcibly disappeared as a result of political violence, even after a fully fledged democratic regime is consolidated. The prolonged silences in Cyprus and Spain contradict the experience of other countries such as Bosnia, Guatemala, and South Africa, where truth recovery for disappeared or missing persons was a central element of the transition to peace and democracy. Exhumations of mass graves containing the victims from the two periods of violence in Cyprus (1963-1974) and the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was delayed up until the early 2000s. Cyprus and Spain are well suited to explain both prolonged silences in transitional justice and the puzzling decision to become belated truth seekers. The article shows that in negotiated transitions, a subtle elite agreement links the noninstrumental use of the past with the imminent needs for political stability and nascent democratization. As time passes, selective silence becomes an entrenched feature of the political discourse and democratic institutions, acquiring a hegemonic status and prolonging the silencing of violence

Equality, good relations and a shared future

There are two major public policy objectives in Northern Ireland. One is the equality agenda designed to deliver the promise in the Good Friday Agreement of equality and parity of esteem for the two main communities and for members of other social and ethnic groups. The other is the Shared Future agenda designed to foster integration and good relations between the two main communities and between them and minorities. The official position is that these two policy objectives are mutually consistent and complementary and can be pursued with equal commitment. The reality is rather less straightforward. There are in practice two different bureaucratic systems operating to two different models of implementation

Antivoid Alliance - SPAMJAM:Social Parrhesia As Musical JAM- Radio/online broadcast, Radiophrenia festival 2023

If parrhesia once described the bravery of a solo voice against a single force. Then a multitudinous oppression should be met with a chorus of dissent. A collective jamming of the signal; a co-produced glitch, a dissonant polyrhythm set against a discordant song. In defiance of the individualisation of our call the response to repression should be played amongst allies. A rehearsal of a people yet to come in a place still being built, an unspokenword night of joyous resistance, of reverberation and resonance, of Social Parrhesia As Musical JAM.Recorded live at Brighton Electric, Sunday 20 June 2021, Brighton. Accepted and broadcast as part of Radiophrenia festival 202

Thigh-length compression stockings and DVT after stroke

Controversy exists as to whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves survival in patients with invasive bladder cancer, despite randomised controlled trials of more than 3000 patients. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effect of such treatment on survival in patients with this disease