Reconciliation Programs from the Experiences of War-Affected Persons in Post-Conflict Northern Uganda

Abstract

Today, more than ever, armed conflict perpetuators capitalize on the resourcefulness of young people to achieve their aims leading to young people’s involvement in armed conflicts as ‘child soldiers’, and exposing them to adverse problems including broken relationships with their own families or communities against whom they might have committed (forcibly or otherwise) serious crimes. Consequently, when the conflict ends, or the young people manage to return home they are faced with enormous challenge of reintegrating within the communities they transgressed against, an issue which calls for reconciliation. However what reconciliation means from the perspective of those who had to go through it, and what post-conflict programing should do for them is not clear. This study, employing in-depth case study approach, sought to increase current understanding of reconciliation and reconciliation programs by examining the views of formerly abducted children themselves, relatives and key informants, drawing from their lived experiences in the context of post-conflict northern Uganda.