Ugandan parliament may pass bill that will challenge President’s immunity

Members of the Ugandan Parliament have been urged to pass the International Criminal Court Bill into law in order to strengthen the justice system in Uganda. The local war crimes tribunal being set up along the lines of the International Criminal Court will have jurisdiction to try foreign presidents forcing law makers to ask what would happen to President Yoweri Museveni´s own constitutional immunity from prosecution. (08-SEP-08)

This article is a synthesis of the New Vision and the Daily Monitor; the two Ugandan national daily´s, coverage today of a recent seminar hosted by the Uganda Coalition on the ICC, a project under Human Rights Network (HURINET) Uganda. The three original articles were written by Francis Emorut, Hillary Nsambu and Ann Mugisa  (for the New Vision) and Paul Amoru (for the the Daily Monitor). They have been edited into one and prepared for publication here by HRHF / Niels Jacob Harbitz.

-Presidential immunity is absolute in our national law, but the ICC Statute does not recognise it, Mr Chairman, how do I deal with that?, Kampala MP Erias Lukwago asked at the meeting organised by the Uganda Coalition on the ICC – a body advocating the dispersal of the courts standards. Mr John Francis Onyango, Coordinator of the UCICC, said the coalition will fight on to ensure that the Bill goes through Parliament. On Friday, however, some members of a committee said it wouldn´t be passed if it affects Mr Museveni´s immunity. Whatever the outcome, it is already clear that resolving this legal dilemma is threatening to delay the domestication of the ICC statute through a bill in parliament which would eventually give birth to the court. The bill is already four years late.

At the same seminar, High Court advocate Moses Adriko said the establishment of a local war crimes tribunal would enable Uganda to try war criminals, in line with the ICC Statutes, making clear that the ICC is a court of last resort, i.e. one that should only be activated when national systems prove unable or unwilling to bring war criminals to justice. Adriko further made it clear that: “By passing the Bill, we shall be able to reject the notion of immunity extended to the Head of State in power.”

Recently, the ICC issued an arrest warrant against the President of Sudan, Omar Bashir, right, for allegedly committing crimes against humanity. He urged the MPs to remove the Juba peace process from the Bill and expedite its approval. Kampala Central MP Erias Lukwago (DP) said: “We can not pass the Bill if the Constitution is not amended.” He argued that the Constitution gives the sitting President immunity from prosecution and yet the Rome Statute says he should be prosecuted if he commits crimes against humanity. Soroti Woman MP Alice Alaso (FDC) argued that when the demand for opening Presidential term limits were made, the Constitution was amended and therefore, it could be amended to accommodate the Bill.

Nwoya county MP Simon Oyet supported the view that if justice is to prevail in Uganda, both the LRA and the UPDF commanders who committed war crimes must face the courts of law. “In the interests of the victims of the northern war, both parties must be brought before the International Criminal Court (ICC) to account for war crimes and crimes against humanity in order to bring meaningful and sustainable peace in the region,” the youthful MP said. Oyet added that it would not be meaningful to focus only on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commanders headed by Joseph Kony when some UPDF commanders also committed atrocities against the people of northern Uganda. In conclusion, Oyet reminded the audience that the war victims were questioning the moral authority of the ICC, given the fact that its mandate starts only in 2002.  “The year 2002 leaves a lot of gap for the war crimes that were committed before that year. Most of the crimes committed before that time were by the Government forces,” Oyet said. The MP asserted that before 2002, many people died at the hands of the then National Resistance Army (NRA), while women were raped and girls were defiled.