Peace and Conflict Transformation

Monday, 21 November 2011 04:34

The Access to Justice Project
This project was established in 2009 by IRCU with support from DANIDA HUGGO. 

It focuses on rural women, children and other vulnerable groups in two Sub Counties of each of the districts namely; Iganga, Mayuge, Bugiri and Busia Districts which are:-
Namungalwe and Bulamagi Sub Counties in Iganga District, Imanyiro and Malongo Sub Counties in Mayuge District, Iwemba and Buyinga Sub Counties in Bugiri District, Busia Town Council and Dabani Sub Counties in Busia District. 

Access to justice can be defined as access by people in particular from the poor and disadvantaged groups to fair, effective and accountable mechanisms for protection of rights, control of abuse of power and resolution of conflicts. 
This includes the ability of people to seek and obtain remedies through formal and informal justice systems and the ability to exercise influence on law making and law implementing processes and institutions. 

Project’s goal: 

• “To promote and enhance access to justice for the people of Uganda through a faith based approach”

Objectives:

• To contribute to the on-going efforts in the promotion and enhancement of access to justice and legal aid for the
  people of Uganda through religious institutions. 
• To empower the public with knowledge and information on
  access to justice, impediments to accessing justice and
  legal aid services.

Key stakeholders 

• Religious Leaders
• Government Agencies that promote Access to Justice
• Like minded NGOs and CBOs
• Community Leaders
• Poor Women 
• Children 
• Other Vulnerable groups 

Deepening Democracy Program:
The deepening democracy program focuses on continuois civic engagement informed by the IRCU Strategic Plan Goal No. 2 which aims at IRCU's contribution to the realization of sustainable peace, human rights and good governance in Uganda. 

Goal: Active citizen participation in the democratization process in Uganda 

The focus is on three impact areas:

• Increasing the awareness and participation of 
  communities, civil and political groups in conflict 
  resolution, reconciliation and good governance using 
  faith based approaches.
• Strengthening the capacity of religious and education institutions to prevent and manage conflicts using 
  non-violent means.
• Strengthening the capacity of family institution and communities to play a key role in promoting peaceful 
  co-existence and development.
 

Objectives 

•  Building the civic competence of religious 
  leadership to educate their communities 
  on the need for use of non- violent 
  means in resolving conflict, furthering 
  conflict transformation and reconciliation 
  at all levels of society
• To increase the consciousness of the 
  citizenry with respect to their democratic 
  and constitutional rights and their 
  governance processes.
• To contribute towards improvement in the democratization process through dialogue, peaceful co-existence,
  tolerance, reconciliation and internal Peer Review. 
  
• To contribute to increasing citizenry consciousness and capacity to demand for downward accountability on 
  service delivery from civic and elected leaders

Peace and National Reconciliation Program:
The program aims at consolidating and strengthening the multi-religious responses to peace building and national reconciliation in Uganda.

Objcetives
•  Provide a framework and platform for coordinated
   response by religoius leaders and groups in influencing 
    national policy on peace building, conflict resolution.

•  Contribute and stimulate processes of peace buidling,
    conflict prevention and reconciliation in Uganda and the Great Lakes Region as well a sthe Greater Horn of Africa.

Stakeholders in the Programmes:

•  Religoius Leaders
•  Policy making organs
•  Grassroot groups and communities
•  Vulnerable groups including victims of war, women and youth.
•  Government
•  Regional bodies