Under the Ugandan Amnesty Act of 2000, complete amnesty was extended to membe...

Under the Ugandan Amnesty Act of 2000, complete amnesty was extended to members of the LRA on the condition that they report to a designated area, surrender their weapons and make a declaration renouncing and abandoning involvement in the war or armed rebellion. Unfortunately, there were no conditions regarding truth-telling; individuals were not required to make a full declaration of the acts they had committed or the incidents they might have witnessed; and no crimes, including sexual violence, were excluded from qualification under the amnesty regime. Victims did not even receive an apology through this process. The granting of amnesty guaranteed impunity and therefore did not shift the stigma of shame away from the survivors to the perpetrators of these crimes. The pardoning facility under the Amnesty Act was dissolved last year, but while in existence, it provided blanket immunity from prosecution for sexual violence and other crimes for the entire period of the Ugandan LRA conflict.