CrimSL Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Ketty Anyeko partnered with community-based survivor-led organization Women’s Advocacy Network (WAN) in Uganda to conduct four consultative workshops with children and youth born of wartime forced pregnancy. The workshops were hybrid events that took place over a four-day period, from January 16-19, 2024, at the Dove’s Nest Hotel in Gulu, northern Uganda.
The goal: to seek the perspectives of these youth on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) criminalization of forced pregnancy.
“In 2021, the ICC found former Lord’s Resistance Army rebel commander Dominic Ongwen guilty of committing seven counts of sexual and gender-based crimes alongside other war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It marked the first time in history that forced pregnancy was prosecuted by an international court — but what we do not know are the views of children born because of this crime.”
- Dr. Ketty Anyeko
Dr. Anyeko, with the supervision of Professor Kamari Maxine Clarke and in collaboration with WAN, is currently developing a policy report that presents the perspectives of these children on this case, and their aspirations on justice and accountability.
The workshops were made possible with financial support from the U of T’s Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellowship and the Black Research Network, and various kinds of support from colleagues at the Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies and the Women’s Advocacy Network.