School of Social Science

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Browsing School of Social Science by Author "Busingye, Godard"

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    Collateral Damage During Armed Conflict: Inevitable or a Rule of the Game?
    (2011) Busingye, Godard
    This article discusses the concept of collateral damage. Under international humanitarian law, collateral damage is generally understood to mean the unintentional or incidental damage affecting facilities, equipment, or personnel, occurring as a result of military actions directed against targeted opposing military forces or facilities. The basic ethical value of principles of international humanitarian law is utilitarianism or ethical value of consequence. Utilitarianism defines the morally right action as that action that maximizes some non-moral good such as pleasure or happiness and minimizes some non-moral evil such as pain or misery, in situations of armed conflict, the destruction of the opposing forces or their property. Since armed conflicts cannot be stopped by law, the dilemma of legal scholars, politicians and the military remains how to minimize collateral damage once armed conflicts break out. A general conclusion drawn from the discussion is that collateral damage is an inevitable aspect of armed conflicts.
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    No Peace, No War: Protection of Civilians in the Great Lakes Region of Africa
    (2017) Busingye, Godard; Nkrumah, Bright
    Africa’s Great Lakes Region (GLR) has experienced protracted armed conflicts with severe humanitarian consequences. The dynamics of armed conflicts are often complex and their epicentre shifts from one locus to another, as they expand geographically. The brutality upon innocent civilians caused either by their government’s forces or rebels include sexual violence, forced population displacement and extrajudicial, and summary or arbitrary executions. In a majority of cases, incumbent governments fail in their constitutional mandates and international obligations to protect civilians from such atrocities. While the principle of responsibility to protect (R2P) has been invoked by the United Nations Security Council to protect civilians from atrocities in Libya, it remains unclear as to the criteria used to invoke this process. That inevitably poses constraints on the operationalization of protection of civilian mandates. The Chapter adopts a functionalist approach to probe the effectiveness of the responsibility to protect, by examining its role in the protection of civilians in the Great Lakes Region. Apart from identifying gaps between lack of clarity in conceptualization and operationalization; the discussion notes that there is need for clear normative standards on when and how responsibility to protect can be invoked for future protection missions. Introduction The Great Lakes Region (GLR)1 in Africa consists of countries that essentially coalesce around Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa and other smaller lakes in East and Central Africa. These countries are organised under a regional body, the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR). Within the region, there are also other organisations with more or less similar objectives as the ICGLR, such as the East African Community (EAC), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL), the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern. For purposes of this paper, Great Lakes Region (GLR) refers to the member states of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).
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    Revisiting Impediments to Women’s Land Decision-Making Processes in Uganda
    (2012) Busingye, Godard; Busingye, Godard
    Decision-making for women is a necessary condition for them to participate in various aspects of their social lives as individuals. Demand for women to participate in land decision-making processes is justifiable considering that for a long time, they have been denied that human right by the social forces which permeate their daily lives. The international human rights legal regime recognizes decision-making for women as a cornerstone for all the developmental aspects of humanity. This article identifies and revisits the main impediments to women’s land decision-making processes in Uganda with a view to creating awareness about their evils in respect to the denial of women’s rights. The impediments identified and discussed include custom, colonial rule, colonial education and religion all of which are informed by the ideology of patriarchy. The ideology of patriarchy, whether embedded in African custom or western social fabric and legal systems has a negative impact on women’s right to decision-making.