The Chief Executive Officer of the Greater North United War Debt Claimants Association Uganda, Moses Ogwang Adonyo, has taken the long-running quest for compensation of war victims in Northern and Eastern Uganda to the African Union (AU), calling for continental intervention over the government’s alleged failure to implement a High Court ruling awarding reparations to thousands of victims.
Speaking on Wednesday at Pacific Grand Hotel in Lira City after attending the African Union Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) Citizens Forum at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Adonyo said the association used the platform to highlight the plight of more than 92,634 verified victims who, it says, have waited for over a decade to receive compensation for property, livestock and livelihoods lost during the 1986–2008 conflict. He maintained that although the High Court ordered the government to compensate the victims and no appeal was filed against the judgment, the court order has allegedly remained unimplemented.
Adonyo said the forum also provided him an opportunity to engage senior African Union officials, including the Registrar of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Dr. Robert Eno, the African Union Commission Chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, and ECOSOCC Secretariat officials. He noted that discussions focused on strengthening access to justice, enforcement of court decisions, and advancing Africa’s governance and human rights agenda.
According to Adonyo, one of the key resolutions of the meeting was the need to strengthen the enforcement powers of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. He said participants expressed concern that while many judgments are delivered against member states, implementation remains weak. He cited discussions indicating that many governments fail to comply with court-ordered remedies, prompting calls for amendments to the court’s legal framework to ensure greater accountability.
He revealed that a regional team from East Africa is expected to meet in the coming weeks to begin drafting proposals for amendments to the African Court’s legal instruments. The meetings will bring together representatives from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan, and Nigeria before similar consultations are held in other African regions. Adonyo said he had been invited to participate in the process after contributing proposals during the Addis Ababa deliberations.
The association also informed the ECOSOCC Citizens Forum that it has petitioned the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights after exhausting domestic legal avenues. It argued that replacing court-ordered individual compensation with general household support programmes undermines victims’ constitutional and legal rights to effective remedy and reparation.
The association appealed to the African Union, ECOSOCC and member states to uphold the rule of law by enforcing court judgments, guaranteeing direct compensation for verified victims and strengthening continental justice mechanisms that protect citizens when domestic systems fail.