We sat beneath the mango trees at a hotel in Gulu, northern Uganda, the epicenter of a horrific civil war between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and Ugandan government forces. It was 2011 and the three decommissioned LRA commanders asked me a simple question: did I want to travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo to visit the rebel group’s leader, Joseph Kony? 

This week, the International Criminal Court (ICC) held hearings to confirm the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against him, twenty years after an arrest warrant for Kony was issued. Many people will be watching, including some survivors of LRA violence. But Kony won’t be, not in person. The hearings are the first time that the ICC has held in absentia proceedings against a wanted suspect. At a time when the beleaguered Court is under attack, could this latest development bring a sense of justice to victims of LRA violence? Or is the ICC chasing a dead man to satisfy its own interests?

I hold a special place in my heart for Uganda and its people. I have visited numerous times and worked closely with national and international prosecutors on addressing international crimes committed in the country. As a PhD student, I spent three months in the country studying the war, efforts to end it via peace negotiations, and the desire of many to see perpetrators – from both the LRA and the Government of Uganda – held accountable for countless atrocities, including against children. In 2016, my book, which covered the ICC’s intervention into northern Uganda, was published.

It was as a PhD student that I met three former LRA commanders, to interview them about their time in the rebel group. Like many others in northern Uganda, they saw Kony as a messianic figure, a medium to various spiritual forces. Their conviction of Kony’s powers was genuine. They also told me something else: if Kony died, no one would know.

A few years later, I found myself in Pretoria, South Africa, working with a senior Ugandan prosecutor involved in international crimes. At lunch, I pressed her on Kony’s whereabouts. As many will know, after the so-called “Kony 2012” campaign, Ugandan and American special forces engaged in a ‘hunt for Kony’, to great fanfare. With all of their resources and technology (as well as a generous bounty on Kony’s head), how could it be that they had failed to locate him? The prosecutor shared her belief that Kony was dying in a hospital in Khartoum, Sudan, from mouth cancer. She added that the stench from his cancer was so bad, that family members could not spend much time with him.

It is impossible to say whether the accounts of the LRA fighters or Uganda prosecutors are accurate. But there has not been any confirmed proof of life of Kony for years now. Today, some believe that he is still alive. Citing a report from the Invisible Children organization, journalist Geoffrey York, for example, writes that Kony is in the “Central African Republic, bartering cannabis and honey for survival, while a court in The Hague considers war-crimes charges against him.” If Kony is alive, at sixty-three, he has surpassed the life expectancy of someone living in the harsh conditions of the central African bush.

Are proceedings against someone who may or may not be alive, but who won’t be more than a ghost at the ICC, a good idea?

There are, naturally, pros and cons. For all the atrocities committed in northern Uganda, the ICC has only prosecuted one person – former child soldier and LRA combatant Dominic Ongwen – for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The International Crimes Division (ICD) in Uganda also prosecuted an LRA commander, Thomas Kwoyelo, who was ultimately convicted in 2024, albeit amidst concerns that his prosecution violated human rights standards. Neither the Court nor Division have moved to prosecute Ugandan authorities despite credible evidence that they committed numerous international crimes against Ugandan civilians.

Beyond Ongwen and Kwoyelo, no LRA fighters or Government figures accused of atrocities have faced trial. In this context, the confirmation of charges against Kony at the ICC might offer some vindication for victims of the LRA’s atrocities, and a chance to be heard through the processes of an international court. As the ICC Prosecutor has said, the proceedings will hopefully offer “a meaningful milestone for victims of Mr Kony’s crimes who have waited patiently for justice for almost two decades.” For one survivor, Stella Angel Lanam, the proceedings may indeed offer a degree of justice: “Will the government or Kony repair me back to the way I was? No. But at least I will get justice.”

Some hope that the proceedings will also galvanize new efforts to apprehend Kony or bring other senior LRA and Government figures responsible for atrocities to account. It is noteworthy, however, that there appear to be no cases forthcoming at the ICC or Uganda’s International Crimes Division in relation to the Uganda-LRA war, despite multiple candidates for prosecution. But if – and it’s a big if – the confirmation of charges proceedings somehow instigate more activity to redress atrocities committed in Uganda, they may be seen by more observers more favourably in the future.

The situation in Uganda has always been treated by the ICC as something of a laboratory for justice, where the Court’s interests often come before that of the country’s people. The ICC’s cases against the LRA were its first, chosen because they were supposed to be ‘easy targets’ for a young and developing institution. In its zeal to get prosecutorial ‘wins’ on the board, many have criticized the Court, rightly or wrongly, for disregarding fragile peace negotiations between the LRA and Kampala.

Many in Uganda also prefer restorative, rather than criminal, justice, and wonder what tangible benefit ICC proceedings will bring to survivors and affected communities. In this context, it is notable that reparations cannot flow from the confirmation of charges proceedings against Kony; the hearings cannot make a material difference in the lives of the LRA’s victims. Citing Ugandan judge Susan Okalany, one observer notes:

For survivors in northern Uganda, reparations remain a promise unkept. Their lives were torn apart by a war in which children were forced to kill, women were enslaved, and entire villages destroyed. Now, they face the quieter suffering of neglect—watching as perpetrators are tried while their own needs go unmet… For justice to be real, it must reach the communities who bore the war’s heaviest costs. Until then… Uganda’s legal framework will remain a system that punishes crimes but leaves victims without repair.

The ICC’s venture into in absentia proceedings against Kony are yet another experiment. As law professor Michael Scharf notes, “(Prosecutors) have their eyes in the long run on the possibility of using this procedure against Putin or Netanyahu if they continue to elude justice year after year.” They are also viewed as an effort for the ICC to remain relevant as it comes under siege from America, Israel, and Russia.

Back in 2011, I declined the invitation to endure the journey to (maybe) meet Kony. I hoped that the only time I would see him would be as he faced justice for his crimes, in Uganda or the ICC. Whatever one thinks of the Court’s proceedings against him this week, it is not accountability that Kony is facing; yet it is accountability and reparations for their years of suffering at the hands of the LRA and Ugandan military that survivors deserve.