BUILDING PEACE AND JUSTICE: LESSONS FROM UGANDA

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1 Workshop Content BUILDING PEACE AND JUSTICE: LESSONS FROM UGANDA Workshop at Wilfrid Laurier University Thursday 22nd Friday 23rd March, 2007 Events in Afghanistan and in Iraq have overshadowed important developments elsewhere in conflict-affected states and regions. On February 1st 2007, the Government of Canada announced an additional $2.5 million contribution, adding to $1.5 million already provided, towards supporting stabilization and peace building projects in northern Uganda as part of its commitment to the peace process between the Government of Uganda and the Lord s Resistance Army. The Laurier workshop will be a roundtable-format event, using short presentations as the basis for opportunities for exchange and dialogue in examining some of the individual, local, national, regional and international dimensions of post-conflict peace building in Uganda. Topics to be discussed may include: negotiating the peace and establishing the framework of post-conflict governance; disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of ex-combatants; the special challenges of child soldiers; social and psychological dimensions of trust-building; approaches to justice and reconciliation; policing and civil security sector reforms; and transitioning from humanitarian assistance to sustainable peace and development. The workshop format for Friday will be open and informal as much as possible, to give space for the exchange of experiences and ideas. However the intention will be to produce notes for a short written document that identifies critical practical challenges, requirements and options to support the conflict-affected population, and the success of the peace process, in Uganda. The Opening Session on Thursday 22 nd March is open to the public, and will be held in the WLU Senate and Board Chamber. Participation in the Friday workshops requires advance registration and seating is limited: to register contact Richelle Richardson at the indicated below; once all seating is filled a waiting list will be established. The workshop sessions on Friday 23 rd March will be held in the Paul Martin Centre. Additional information updates about the workshop will be posted on or contact Alistair Edgar, aedgar@wlu.ca or ext or Richelle Richardson, richellerichardson@gmail.com. The workshop is supported financially by a grant from the Chancellor John C. Cleghorn Fund, with additional funds from the Laurier Centre for Military Strategic and Disarmament Studies (LCMSDS) and the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS). The proceedings of the workshop will be made available on the ACUNS website,

2 BUILDING PEACE AND JUSTICE: LESSONS FROM UGANDA Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario Thursday 22 nd March Opening Welcome and Reception Location: Senate and Board Chamber Open to the public; no registration required pm Welcome remarks: Dr. Alistair Edgar, ACUNS/WLU Opening Keynote Presentation: Ambassador Joseph Kahiigwa, Deputy High Commissioner of Uganda, High Commission of Uganda, Ottawa Reception Friday 23 rd March Workshop Sessions Location: Paul Martin Centre Limited seating only; advance registration required. 8.30am am 9.00am am 9.15am am Breakfast reception Opening remarks Workshop I: Political and Institutional Dimensions Moderator: TBD Speakers: Sasha Lezhnev, Global Witness, Reintegration and reconciliation of ex-lra combatants: successes and challenges Duncan Sunday Okello-Angoma, Birmingham University, From Politics of War to Politics of Peace: Whose War, Whose Peace, And Whose Justice? Joanna R. Quinn, Univ. of Western Ontario, If At First You Don t Succeed, Try, Try Again: Transitional Justice in Uganda Tim Shaw, Royal Roads University, Two Ugandas? Can a developmental and a fragile state coexist in one country? 11.30am pm Lunch break

3 1.00pm 3.15pm Workshop II: Social and Economic Dimensions Moderator: TBD Speakers: Mary Lou Klassen, Conrad Grebel College and Dave Klassen Consultant and former MCC, Stories of hope on the path to reconciliation Jessica Broere, ex-mines Action Canada, Mine Action for a Safe And Protected Return Ayiko Solomon, Peace for All International, Skeleton Confessions of Children in Northern Uganda 3.15pm 3.45pm 3.45pm 4.00pm Reflections and proposals: open group discussion Moderator: John Siebert, Executive Director, Project Ploughshares Closing remarks

4 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES ON SPEAKERS (alphabetical order) Ms. Jessica Broere graduated in spring 2006 with an Honours BA in Political Science and Global Studies from Wilfrid Laurier University. During her degree she studied for six months in Durban, South Africa. She has recently returned to Canada after a six month contract working with Mines Action Canada in Uganda. In this capacity-developing placement with the Uganda Landmine Survivors Association, she focused primarily on victim assistance, including not only care and rehabilitation but also the social and economic reintegration of mine victims and the development of mine awareness programs. Her responsibilities included creating marketing tools and participating in the development of policies and legislation in cooperation with national and international stakeholders. She traveled to many IDP Camps in Northern Uganda to work with landmine survivors and to present mine risk reduction education to school children returning to villages. She also assisted in establishing a new (banana-rope making) cooperative for landmine survivors in Western Uganda. Jessica hopes to return to school for her MA in International Relations in the Fall of Ambassador Joseph Kahiigwa is the Deputy High Commissioner at the High Commission of Uganda in Ottawa. A biographical note will be distributed separately. Dave and Mary Lou Klassen were in Uganda for 7 years from with the Mennonite Central Committee working as program administrators. They were involved with religious groups in addressing the conflict in Northern Uganda, and also conflict among cattle herders in the east of the country. Dave Klassen currently works as a consultant in several different roles, and Mary Lou is part-time Administrative Assistant to the Program Director at the Peace & Conflict Studies Program, Conrad Grebel College while undertaking her MTS also at Conrad Grebel College. Mr. Sasha Lezhnev is a Washington, DC-based Policy Advisor for Global Witness. Before this, he worked with the Northern Uganda Peace Initiative, the International Crisis Group s Africa Program, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and Makerere University s Refugee Law Program. He holds a Master s degree in International Relations from Cambridge University and a B.S. in Foreign Service magna cum laude from Georgetown University. Sasha is the author of Crafting Peace: Strategies to Deal with Warlords in Collapsing States (2005). Mr. Duncan Sunday Okello-Angoma is a doctoral candidate at the School of Public Policy, Birmingham University (UK). He has just returned to the UK from attending the Acholi Peace Conference in Juba, Southern Sudan, called by Paramount Chief Rwot David Onen Acana II of Acholi Uganda. He has studied and worked in various peace building and reconciliation capacities in Uganda, Sweden and the United Kingdom. He holds a Masters in Peace and Reconciliation Studies from Coventry University (UK). Dr. Joanna R. Quinn is Assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at The University of Western Ontario. Her current research looks at transitional mechanisms

5 of acknowledgment and reconciliation in Uganda. She has conducted research on truth commissions in Uganda and Haiti, and on other forms of transitional justice in Uganda. She has been working on issues related to transitional justice in Uganda since Dr. Quinn has taught courses on genocide, human rights, democratization, and post-conflict resolution. Professor Tim Shaw holds an MA from makerer University in the late-1960s and is now visiting professor at Mbarara University of Science & Technology and Makarere University Business School. He taught Political Science and International Development Studies at Dalhousie University for three decades before serving for five years as the Director at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London. He is now Professor of Human Security and Peace-building at Royal Roads University and will animate its residency in Uganda in late-april/early-may He has had several years of teaching at universities in Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Dr. Shaw is a member of the Civil Society Advisory Committee for the Commonwealth Foundation which is organizing the next Commonwealth people s Forum in Kampala in mid- November Mr. John Siebert became Executive Director of Project Ploughshares August 1, Previously he served as a Foreign Service Officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs; Program Officer for Human Rights and Aboriginal Justice with the United Church of Canada; and as consultant to governments and non-governmental organizations in Canada and overseas in project and program development, institutional evaluation, and policy development. He has a BA in political science from the University of Winnipeg and an MA in theology from St. Michael s College of the Toronto School of Theology. While at Foreign Affairs, John worked in the United Nations division in Ottawa and in the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC. His human rights work with the United Church included work with the Canadian Council of Churches Human Rights Committee, the World Council of Churches Program to Combat Racism, and the churches advocacy work with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. More recently he has assisted the Canadian churches involved in litigation related to Indian Residential Schools. Mr. Ayiko Solomon is a third-year Global Studies student at Wilfrid Laurier University. His pursuit for personal healing due to the war in Uganda led him to begin a journey towards peace for himself as well as the forgotten people in Northern Uganda. He is the president and founder of Peace for All International and is working closely with government officials and partners in Uganda on peace-building and development. Further information on the organization can be found at