An Examination of the Effectiveness of the Procedures of Accessing Amnesty in Uganda

Abstract

The development of any country largely depends on the peace, tranquillity and security pertaining in that country and the neighbouring countries. It is therefore incumbent on national governments to ensure that there is stable peace to ensure stable and equitable development. Therefore, in the event that a conflict has occurred, every effort must be put in place to ensure that peaceful means of resolving conflicts including amnesty are employed to end conflicts and ensure sustainable peace and development. This paper aimed at examining the effectiveness of the procedures of accessing amnesty in Uganda. Uganda as well as in other countries where amnesty has been used to amicably end conflicts and ensure sustainable peace, the whole amnesty process has always been inhibited by the procedures that an amnesty applicant passes through to access amnesty. Therefore, an examination of the effectiveness of the procedures of accessing amnesty in Uganda was a timely publication. The paper is an excerpt from a larger PhD study by the author entitled Amnesty as a panacea to conflict: An assessment of the Contribution of Amnesty to conflict resolution and sustainable peace in Uganda. The study was guided by the desire to end conflicts and wars through the use peaceful conflict resolution mechanisms like amnesty. The study adopted mixed research methods as both quantitative and qualitative study designs were used. A questionnaire was used to collect data from one thousand respondents spread throughout the five districts in Uganda that were studied and each district representing one region out of Uganda’s five regions. In addition, one-on-one interviews were held with several key informants like reporters, Resident District Commissioners of the sampled districts, staff of NGOs that were involved in the receiving of reporters, some sections of the security apparatus, lawyers and religious leaders. The results of the study showed that knowledge of the procedures of accessing amnesty by an amnesty applicant is paramount in the effectiveness of the entire amnesty process. The findings of the study are beneficial to the academia, public policy makers, the NGO world, peace negotiators and politicians because they depict how the procedures of accessing amnesty are a cornerstone in the entire amnesty process and what should always be done to ensure that such procedures are well disseminated to all the would-be amnesty beneficiaries as well as the general public for the benefit of all stakeholders in the amnesty process. This rationale behind tis study was to highlight the challenges amnesty seekers face as a result of the stringent procedures in their pursuit of freedom after conflict.