Communication 431/12 – Thomas Kwoyelo v. Uganda
254.
The Respondent on its part prefers that the paper cited in the Communication
was authored by the Transitional Justice Working Group, of which the Chief
Justice is not and has never been a member, nor did he ever endorse the views in
the said paper.
255.
The Respondent further asserts that the paper did not ‘severely criticize’ the
judgement of the Constitutional Court as alleged. It presented the Group’s views
on the Amnesty Act and its impact on Uganda’s national and international
obligations and outlines the challenges presented by the Act to the State’s ability
to fulfil its duty to ensure justice and accountability for serious human rights
violations, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Uganda.
256.
After carefully studying the said paper submitted as annex by the
Complainant, the Commission partly agrees with the Complainant that the article
does criticize the decision of the Constitutional Court, but regards the qualification
of such criticism as ‘severe’ as an exaggeration. The paper is largely objective and
criticizes the decision from the perspective of the international human rights
obligations of Uganda and the Juba Agreement on Accountability and
Reconciliation. The paper calls for the revision of the Amnesty Act to enable
prosecution of grave violations of human rights.
257.
Moreover, the Complainant, besides qualifying the ‘criticism’ as severe, does
not explain how or why it is severe. The Complainant does not pinpoint to sections
of the paper that he considers amount to severe criticism. But even if the criticism
was severe as alleged, that by itself does not automatically make it biased or
prejudiced as long as it is empirical and substantiated.
258.
Furthermore, although the Complainant rightly identifies the Justice Law and
Order Sector that the Chief Justice heads as the author of the paper, a clear linkage
has to be made between the views made in the article and the Chief Justice and
69
62nd Ordinary Session, 25 April – 9 July 2018
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