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Abbreviated Recommendations¹

To the Government of Uganda:

• Overhaul governmental complaints procedures in the north to provide accountability for serious crimes committed by the military.  Ensure that the resolution of complaints is not at the sole discretion of the military commander, and that there is independent oversight of the complaints process.

• Design and implement clear procedures for complainants, such as where and to whom to report complaints and how and to whom to appeal.  Make sure these procedures are disseminated at all levels of the population in northern Uganda through public awareness campaigns and in partnership with traditional leaders and local civil society actors.

To the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces:

• Investigate and discipline or prosecute as appropriate serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law committed by UPDF personnel regardless of their rank. Investigations in northern Uganda should focus first on abuses by the 11^th Battalion.

To the Lord’s Resistance Army:

• Immediately cease all attacks against civilians and other non-combatants including willful killing, torture, mutilation and abduction.

To the International Criminal Court:

• Prepare and implement a communications and outreach strategy to create awareness of the ICC’s mission among communities and civil society in northern Uganda.
• Reiterate and implement its commitment to investigate crimes falling within the jurisdiction of the ICC committed by all parties to the conflict, including the UPDF.

• Immediately implement adequate witness protection measures and ensure that all investigators working in northern Uganda are properly trained to conduct their investigations while minimizing the risk to victims and witnesses.

To the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:

• Provide training and support to national and local non-governmental human rights organizations based in Kampala, Gulu and other parts of northern Uganda.

• Urge the Ugandan government to act in accordance with the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, particularly with respect to camp security and freedom of movement for internally displaced persons outside of displaced persons camps.

To the Uganda Human Rights Commission:

• Develop a plan with nongovernmental organizations and donors to assist in the protection of internally displaced persons through stationing UHRC staff in camps to receive complaints of LRA and UPDF abuses.

To the World Bank and the International Donor Community:

• Support programs for protection of displaced persons and for their voluntary return home in dignity and safety.

• Support programs for nongovernmental organizations to educate citizens of northern Uganda about their rights and procedures to file complaints against the government.

To the Uganda Government (including the UPDF and UHRC), Humanitarian Organizations and Donors:

• Ensure that individuals who receive complaints and reports of sexual and gender-based violence, whether they be community leaders, law enforcement officers or humanitarian workers, be properly, extensively and repeatedly trained covering a wide range of issues on such violence.