SGD Uganda plays a significant role in the promotion of justice, Rights and Rule of Law for crimes and serious violations of human rights in Uganda, principally among the student community especially through documentation and advocacy.
The most affected victims are the student political activists and Human Rights Defenders (HRDs), and in the absence of credible accountability mechanisms or rule of law, these category of people have been deeply affected by the abusive regime or affect the work since it could be used as evidence by justice mechanism.

SGD Uganda conducts interviews with survivors, draft reports on alleged violations, advocate for the establishment of justice mechanisms, and with legal assistance, file cases in courts on behalf of victims. All of this information can feed into current or future justice processes concerning killings, disappearances, torture, sexual violence, crimes against children, or other violations that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, or even genocide. Collecting documentation can prove to be incredibly difficult, in the absence of a single, commonly accepted set of rules of procedure and evidence. As such, organizations are increasingly looking for appropriate tools to contribute to justice efforts in a way that is as safe and victim-centered as possible.

Students for Global Democracy Uganda is a member of the Coalition for the ICC (CICC), which is a global civil society network of member organizations in 150 countries, and led the successful campaign to set up the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The coalition is continuing to fight for global justice through national courts and the now well-established ICC in The Hague.

To address the above phenomenon, under the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, SGD Uganda has a mandate to;

1. To counter and defeat negative publicity, stereotyping and image portrayal of the ICC using public diplomacy by telling the truth and providing evidence about the nature of the ICC, the ICC mandate and functions in the contemporary International Criminal Justice system.
2. To support and participate in all periodically organized and led initiatives, events and processes by the ICC involving people massively and reaching out to a wider constituency of young people and students.
3. To advocate, lobby and diplomatically engage with various stakeholders including national governments and state institutions on issues of contemporary Human Rights, Democracy and International Criminal Justice mechanisms to enable a conducive environment for ICC’s effective role and functioning.
4. To initiate, form, organize, develop and sustain an active pro-ICC young people and students-led progressive movement which promotes, guards, defends and protects the ICC Image, role/functions and ICC Legacy through a “Friends of ICC Young People and Students Groups” at local, national and global level.

Popularizing the Rome Statute of the ICC Initiative

The initiative conducted by SGD Uganda in collaboration other justice and human rights seeking civil society partners with support from the Coalition for the International Criminal Court (CICC) is intended to popularize the Rome Statute of the ICC among the young people, principally the students and countering and defeating misinformation, misrepresentation and misunderstanding against the ICC in Uganda and Africa.

SGD-Uganda aims at countering and defeating the misinformation, misrepresentation and misunderstanding against the ICC perpetuated by the enemies of the court and the fugitives of international criminal justice. SGD-Uganda aims at using the project as a tool to achieve enlightenment and empowerment of the ordinary people in Uganda, the young people-primary and secondary school-going status, school-dropout status (at all levels), student community at higher education level (tertiary education level) and including those who have never been to school (illiterate and uneducated). These categories of people are involved in the project to reach out to fellow peers, people of other categories, government officials and politicians throughout the selected areas of Uganda whether rural, urban and peri-urban. The project has tried to defeat negative publicity, stereotype and image portrayal of the ICC through public diplomacy by telling the truth and providing evidence through public diplomacy about the relevant role and functions of the ICC in contemporary International Criminal Justice.

Establishing Friends of the ICC Student Clubs

SGD Uganda supports positive complementarity initiatives, such as projects at national level that promote awareness of the Rome Statue system in Uganda by establishing International Criminal Court Clubs in high schools in Uganda to sustain the conversation and ICC related activities in the institutions of learning. These ICC student sustainable platforms help to raise a generation of young people who adhere to the principles and values of the international justice systems.