Uganda

The conflict in Uganda, particularly the insurgency led by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), unfolded against a backdrop of deep-rooted divisions within the nation. Emerging in 1986, the LRA claimed to defend the rights of the marginalized Acholi people, mainly residing in the North. However, the reality was starkly different, as the LRA perpetrated heinous atrocities, including sexual violence, primarily against the Acholi people they purported to protect. Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, believed he was acting as a spiritual messenger of God, further compounding the conflict’s complexity.

One of the key tactics in Kony’s war is the abduction and forced recruitment of children into his army – both as soldiers, as well as sexual slaves. Estimates place this number at more than 65.000 children. Fear of such abduction and violence has forced millions of people to flee their homes, within Uganda and sometimes even further. Some of these people find themselves in refugee camps, where the threat of sexual violence persists.

The conflict had far-reaching consequences. Government forces, in an attempt to protect civilians from LRA-attacks, ordered more than 1.7 million individuals in Acholi and Lango regions into over 200 Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) camps. Within these camps, nearly 25,000 children, including 7,500 girls, suffered abduction by the LRA. Many were exploited as child soldiers and subjected to sexual slavery. Evidence suggests that sexual brutality and torment were not limited to the LRA, but also involved government forces, with the majority of sexual exploitation taking place within the IDP camps.

Women’s Advocacy Network (WAN)

Women’s Advocacy Network is a network of more than 700 survivors of war-related sexual violence, including abduction and forced marriage and pregnancy connected across most of the 14 districts of northern Uganda. The network was established in 2015 after participating in income generation and storytelling projects brought survivors together to identify common challenges. Since then, WAN has engaged in four major areas of work: (a) Survivor to Survivor exchanges; (b) Child tracing of children born in captivity; (c) Research and Advocacy; and (d) Income generation. WAN is a key network for war-affected women to advocate for justice, acknowledgement and accountability.

Golden Women Vision (GWV-U)

Golden Women Vision in Uganda is a local community-based organisation established in 2011 supporting the most vulnerable women, children, and youth in Gulu and Omoro Districts, Northern Uganda. GWV to improve the social economic status of the people who were affected by the Northern Uganda war insurgency. They train women and girls in income generating activities, such as baking, liquid soap making, pancakes, and paper beads for self-sustenance. They also organize cultural dances for the youth, to help them forget the bad memories of the past and reconstruct a better future. GWV has about 800 members.

As WAN and GWV-U have developed their advocacy on the right to reparations for victims of conflict-related sexual violence they concluded that their children born in captivity, who suffered harms distinct from those of their mothers, needed to speak to these issues themselves. Both networks invited their youth to consider if they wanted to establish formal chapters within each of WAN and GWV-U, and since 2023, both GWVU-U and WAN have been supporting two youth groups respectively.