Post by: Courtney Knox
February 2020 will mark six months living and working
in Kampala, Uganda as part of Regent Law’s Center for Global Justice Fellowship
program. Through this, I’ve been working with both International Justice
Mission (IJM) and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) on a
variety of cases and projects.
ODPP
The annual conference, held in memory of a former
prosecutor named Joan Kagezi, takes a different them each year and this year is
honoring Kagezi’s passion for fighting all forms of human trafficking. Kagezi was
the Assistant Director of Public Prosecution and head of the International
Crimes Division and was tragically killed in 2015. Kyampisi is sponsoring this
event in partnership with the ODPP so I’ve had a chance to be part of the planning
process for this event and am looking forward to the culmination of it in the
beginning of April!
IJM
There is not much I can share about my work with IJM
due to its confidentiality policies regarding its work here in Uganda. However,
I can share that IJM has recently received a number of grants to help eradicate
violence against women and girls in Uganda, which has been really exciting.
These projects have kept most all of the staff very busy and involved. Generally,
these grants have involved meeting with survivors to gather data on their
experiences with violence in their communities and subsequent experience with
the public justice system, drafting and conducting trainings, and national
stakeholder workshops. The grants are mostly long-term so I anticipate working
on them throughout my time in Uganda.
HIGHLIGHTS
~ Freedom Sunday: On
September 22nd, 2019 IJM held what is known as Freedom Sunday, which
gives churches around the world the opportunity to host a service dedicated to
learning about slavery and partnering with IJM to end it. I had the chance to attend
a local church called Watoto on Freedom Sunday, along with two of my IJM
colleagues, and share with members of their congregation exactly what IJM does
and how they can get involved. Our presence there also allowed members of the
congregation who had experienced abuse share their stories with us personally
and ask for help. I believe around 15,000 churches worldwide participated in
this event. This year, Freedom Sunday will be held on September 20th
so mark your calendars and get your church involved!
~ Watoto Babies Home visit:
Through our participation in Freedom Sunday at Watoto Church we learned about
Baby Watoto, an orphanage that cares for abandoned babies and toddlers from
infancy to 2 years, and were able to organize a visit to the home. We got a
chance to tour of the facility that houses the babies, learn what goes into
caring for these vulnerable babies, and then helped feed and play with the
babies. They were the sweetest babies and it was such a joy to get to spend
time with them. I’m hoping to make another visit before my time in Uganda ends.
~ Going to the field to
meet with IJM survivor group: On October 11th
all of the new IJM interns and fellows, were able to go to the field to meet
with a group of survivors from previous cases of land grabbing. We got to sit
with the women who were part of the group and hear their stories and why the
survivor group was important to them. Together, they have actually started a
business making and selling all sorts of beautiful crafts to support themselves
and their families. It was great hearing how proud the women were to have
something of their own and something that they controlled. These women were
true boss ladies!
~ ODPP Dinner Gala
commemorating 10th anniversary of the Prevention of Trafficking in
Persons Act (PTIP): 2019 marked the 10 year anniversary
of the PTIP in Uganda. On October 23rd, The Human Trafficking
Institute (HTI) hosted a gala commemorating this occasion and honoring Justice
Mike Chibita, the Director of Public Prosecution, for his role in the
implementation of it. I attended this gala both as an invitee of Justice
Chibita, as well as on behalf of IJM.
~ IJM Uganda National
Retreat: IJM Uganda held its annual national
retreat on December 3-6 in Jinja, Uganda. All of the staff from each of the
three offices (Kampala, Gulu, Fort Portal) came together as one to reflect on
the previous year as well as look ahead at what’s to come. There were tons of
games, celebrations, and reflections that truly helped unify all three offices
as one. It was a fun week to spend time with everyone and meet lots of new
faces.
UPCOMING
These next six months will surely be just as busy as
the first but here are just a couple of things I’m most looking forward to in
the next month or so:
~ Visiting the IJM Gulu
and Fort Portal offices: With all of the work that has come,
and will be coming, with the recent grants IJM has received, it is anticipated
that many of the staff (including myself as a Legal Fellow) will be engaging in
a lot of travel between the three offices. I’ve only spent time in the Kampala
office so I’m very excited about the possibility of seeing the other two
locations where IJM works in Uganda, as well as seeing some of the faces I came
to know at the retreat. I’ve also heard how beautiful both Gulu and Fort Portal
are, and how different they are from Kampala, so I’m looking forward to being
able to see more of Uganda.
~ Plea bargaining –
Pepperdine Prison Project: Pepperdine Law works
with the Judiciary on the implementation of a plea bargaining system here in
Uganda. The goal is to reduce the backlog of Uganda’s courts and reduce
overcrowding in the prisons. Every year, they run a week long program where
teams of attorneys and law students (Ugandan and American) travel to 2-4
different prisons looking over cases, conducting interviews with the accused,
and negotiating deals with the prosecution. The purpose of the week long
project is to work alongside Ugandan lawyers and law students implementing the
plea bargaining process and training. IJM has assisted Pepperdine with this
project for the past couple of years and will be doing the same this year. The
project will take place in the beginning of March and we will be traveling to
Mbarara and Bushenyi.
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