ABSTRACT
Transitional justice mechanisms, to date, focus disproportionately on redress for sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls, overlooking gendered experiences of men and boys. This chapter investigates men’s experiences of forced marriage and fatherhood in the Lord’s Resistance Army during the war in northern Uganda (1987–2008), which elucidate the forceful circumstances under which conjugal unions were formed and their children were born. We draw on research with men demobilized from the LRA now living in northern Uganda which considers their desire and capacity to assume responsibility for their children in the post-war period. The relationship between the former combatant and child brings into conversation forms of justice grounded in lived experiences and judgments issued by the juridical. We take a gender-inclusive approach to unsettle dominant notions of men’s and women’s role in war and question the static categories of victim and perpetrator. Finally, we conclude by highlighting future directions for consideration in the pursuit of justice after war.
