High court’s international crimes division’s management and pathways for prosecuting serious crimes: a case of Uganda.

Abstract

Victims; a person who has suffered physical, sexual, financial, or emotional harm as a result of the commission of a crime. ABSTRACT This study was conducted to examine the High Court’s ICD in the management and pathways for prosecuting serious crimes in Uganda. The underlying objects included; examining the effectiveness of ICD’s legal frameworks in prosecuting serious crimes; examining the challenges faced by the High Court’s ICD of Uganda in prosecuting serious crimes; and examining the pathways to effective prosecution of serious crimes at the High Court’s ICD of Uganda. Case study design was used for this study and data was collected, processed and analyzed using a mixed method of both quantitative and qualitative in research, with a purpose of gaining a holistic understanding of the problem at hand. Purposive sampling techniques were used to select the target respondents. The qualitative data was thematically analyzed while quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 22 and for better presentation, tables were done in MS Excel 2013. Key findings establish the fact that there are contradictions in the operations of ICD’s legal frameworks caused by the Amnesty laws, ICC Act and Death penalty. Equally, most challenges faced by ICD are reckoned by limited financial support and complexities in human resource management coupled with stakeholder’s lack of unified engagement in trying serious crimes. Additionally, the forementioned have also affected the pathways for prosecuting serious crimes, which are effective but are not to their full capacity. Therefore, the ICD should ensure that all parties to a conflict are subject to the jurisdiction of domestic initiatives to avoid contradictions in legal frameworks. The death penalty should be used as a potential sanction while enforcing sentence, ensure timely public information and outreaches, there is need for more financial and human resources, staff require specialized training and skilling, Witness protection and the Legal xii Aid bill are much needed, harmonizing the works of the ICD and the ODPP should be prioritized and more stakeholder engagement within the division is much needed