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Abstract
This article explores the prevalence of disabilities resulting from war crimes committed by parties to the conflict between the Government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army. We compare these individuals and their households with persons in the same geographic area in households with no disabled members. We focus our comparison on livelihoods, education, health care access, food insecurity and wealth, and frame our discussion within the political economy of northern Uganda and its marginalisation vis-à-vis the rest of Uganda. We also examine Uganda’s promising legal framework of rights for persons with disabilities and the realities of their ongoing challenges.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to recognise the efforts of our partners in carrying out the research reported here, including the Women’s Rural Development Network (WORUDET), Pader, Uganda, the African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET), Lira, Uganda, and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London. We also recognise and appreciate the efforts of the enumerators, drivers, and other support staff indispensible to the successful completion of the household survey and follow-up qualitative fieldwork whose results are reported here. Finally, we recognise the individuals and their household members who shared their time and stories with us in the hope that we might amplify their voices in service of recognition of – and, more importantly, adequate response to – their plight.
Notes
1. Meekosha, “Decolonising Disability,” 678.
2. UNICEF, Children with Disabilities, 23.
3. Government of Uganda, Constitution, Articles 21, 32, 35.
4. For a comprehensive overview of Uganda’s legal framework as it relates to people with disabilities, see Human Rights Watch, ‘As If We Weren’t Human’; see also UNICEF.
5. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
6. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
7. Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW.
8. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
9. African [Banjul] Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
10. Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol).
11. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
12. UN Enable, Convention and Optional Protocol Signatures and Ratifications.
13. Human Rights Watch, ‘As If We Weren’t Human’, 65.
14. See for instance UNICEF, Children with Disabilities, 80–82; Human Rights Watch, ‘As If We Weren’t Human’, 58.
15. Persons with Disabilities Act, part I, article 2. ‘Participation’ here refers to the range of activities and interactions constituting an ‘average’ healthy person’s daily life.
16. Human Rights Watch, ‘As If We Weren’t Human’, 64.
17. CRPD, Preamble (e).
18. For a discussion of the ways the conflict has eroded traditional community support networks for people with disabilities, see Human Rights Watch, ‘As If We Weren’t Human’, 27.
19. UNICEF, Children with Disabilities, 71.
20. Annan et al., “The State of Female Youth in Northern Uganda.”
21. AYINET, Surgical and Medical Rehabilitation Report. Also see Pham et al., “Abducted” and Allen and Vlassenroot, The Lord’s Resistance Army for in-depth description of LRA crimes.
22. United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Uganda Human Rights Commission, The Dust Has Not Yet Settled.
23. See Dolan, Social Torture and Branch, ‘Against Humanitarian Impunity’ for further analysis of acts committed by the UPDF.
24. OCHA, CAP Uganda.
25. UNOHCHR and the Uganda Human Rights Commission, The Dust Has Not Yet Settled. xii–xv. For the seven-month time period of the study, researchers found a total excess mortality of 25,694 persons, of which 10,054 were children under 5. The study estimates that 3971 people were violently killed during this same time period in Acholiland. See also the Uganda. Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation, Health and Mortality Survey.
26. Soldatic and Grech, “Transnationalising Disability Studies,” n.p.
27. Depoortere et al., “Violence and mortality in West Darfur”; Plumper and Neumayer, “Unequal Burden.”
28. Usta et al., “Women, War, and Violence”; Linos, “Rethinking GBV During War.”
29. Willard et al., “Iraqi Refugee Torture Prevalence”; Steel et al., “Torture and Trauma Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.”
30. Kinyanda et al., “War Related Violence Consquences, Kitgum”; Vinck and Pham, “Violence and Trauma Exposure, CAR.”
31. Levy and Sidel, “Adverse health Iraq”; Annan et al., “SWAY Uganda, Phase II”; De Waal, Famine Crimes.
32. International Committee of the Red Cross. War crimes under the Statute of the International Criminal Court and their sources in International Humanitarian Law [published online December 15, 2012] ICRC. https://www.icrc.org/en/document/war-crimes-under-rome-statute-international-criminal-court-and-their-source-international.
33. Morris et al., Rapid Estimates of Household Wealth and Income.
34. Lang and Murangira, “Disability Scoping Study,” 15.
35. Interviewed June 3, 2013, male, Aloi subcounty, Alebtong District.
36. Interviewed May 27, 2013, male, Obangangeo, Acaba, Oyam district.
37. Interviewed May 6, 2013, female, Barogal village, Gulu district.
38. Interviewed May 30, 2013, female, Lamincwida village, Pader district.
39. Scoones, “Livelihoods Perspectives,” 172.
40. Levine, How to Study Livelihoods.
41. ‘Livelihood transfers’ in our survey included: seeds, fertilisers, pesticide and tool distribution; agricultural extension services including training and marketing; seed money for revolving funds (savings and credit); non-agricultural services, including training and marketing; and any other project that helped the household with their livelihood.
42. Social protection in our survey included: free food or household items; school feeding programmes; old-age pension; feeding patients in hospitals; retirement pension; and any other money payment from the government or other organisations.
43. Human Rights Watch, ‘As If We Weren’t Human’, 27.
44. A handful of programmes have been supported by the UN Peacebuilding Fund, partnering with UNDP and the GoU to provide medical care for persons in the Acholi sub-region. These programmes did not treat more than 1000 people and were limited in principle to those from Acholi sub-region. Some NGOs and CSOs have run small-scale programmes to treat the war-wounded, but without substantial input and prioritising from the GoU these programmes will continue to reach only a very small percentage of those who need help.