ICC organises public debate at Gulu University, northern Uganda
Press Release
ICC organises public debate at Gulu University, northern Uganda
ICC-CPI-20080404-PR303
In partnership with the Gulu University Guild, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Field Outreach Unit in Uganda organised a public debate on the theme of the ‘International Criminal Justice System’ with students from Gulu University.
The discussion took place at the university’s main campus on March 14 and attracted over 1,500 students and senior lecturers. The aim of the debate was to raise student awareness of the issues related to the promotion of justice and accountability in the northern region of Uganda and to initiate more student involvement at university level. It is anticipated that students will further engage their fellow students as well as others in their local communities on matters connected to the ICC, human rights and transitional justice issues, thus promoting the principles of an international criminal justice system.
Three specialists in the field of international and human rights law and lecturers from the university facilitated the debate and initiated discussions on various topics including: ’The history of the international criminal justice system - the arguments for the ICC’ and ’Understanding international crimes and different justice models - a comparison of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Court’.
The Dean of Gulu University praised the Court for organising the outreach event and commended the way in which it created an opportunity for students and lecturers to ask pertinent questions on the relevance of the international criminal justice system to the situation in Uganda. He requested the Court to organise further programmes that would also target students.
Established in 2001, Gulu University is the first and only public university in northern Uganda and has a total of over 4,000 registered students.
For more information, please contact Ms Maria Mabinty Kamara, Field Public Information and Outreach Co-ordinator for Uganda, tel: +256-77-2700655, email: [email protected]