Victimhood, Political Subjecthood, and Children Born of the Crime of Forced Marriages in Uganda’s LRA

• In Event: Victimhood in Transitional Justice (ECACTJ Working Group)

Abstract

Historically, children born of war (CBW) have been overlooked in post-war peacebuilding efforts; if they were seen at all, it was primarily as inevitable by-products of war or evidence of crimes. Although this thinking is evolving, and there is growing concern for the unique challenges faced by CBW in the post-conflict context, they are still characterized by narrow narratives, regarded generally by locals as “enemy” and by advocates and transitional justice scholars as victims of the conflict and of their “rapist fathers”. Such characterizations affect their identity and deny them agency to determine their own outside of limiting connection to war. Using the case study of northern Uganda, this paper argues that a more nuanced understanding of the victimhood, identity, agency, and needs of CBW generally, one that is generated from the self-reflective considerations of CBW themselves, rather than a one-narrative-fits-all approach, would better serve the field of transitional justice and post-conflict justice pursuits within different contexts.

Author

• Kirsten J. Fisher, University of Saskatchewan, Canada (Department of Political Studies)