By: Anna Wakeling
Among many other values, we hold the following two precepts as foundational American principles: that persons accused of crimes should be afforded due process of law, and that children should not be harmed or exploited.
Attorneys who work in prosecution and public defense must face some grim realities at the intersection of these two values. Sometimes children are harmed in irreversible ways by adults seeking to benefit from their pain, but even those who perpetrate these crimes must still receive ethical and lawful representation.
This summer, as Emma and I served in Uganda, we had the irreplaceable opportunity to work directly with the Honorable Mike Chibita, Justice of the Supreme Court. We and our third American teammate, Courtney, prepared several research projects for His Lordship Justice Chibita over the summer.
For our last couple of weeks in the country, His Lordship had saved one remaining project for us that deals with an issue special to him: the protection of children from ritual sacrifice. Before joining the Court, one of Justice Chibita’s many roles within Uganda’s Justice, Law and Order Sector was Director of Public Prosecutions. He oversaw many cases in which terrible things were done to children for the purpose of attracting wealth and favor from traditionally feared spirits.
We had already returned from the Prison Project, as described previously. While each intern on my team had dealt with many disturbing cases there, we had not yet personally confronted the issue of child sacrifice. Thus, the last Supreme Court case that Justice Chibita assigned us to brief concerned the ritual murder of a young boy and the multiple suspects who had been implicated during the subsequent investigation. Many details of the case were difficult to read.
Fortunately, there was a bright side waiting. His Lordship had arranged for our entire intern team to visit a rehabilitation center called Kyampisi Childcare Ministries during our final week in Uganda. While the country has no official witness protection program for adults, Kyampisi is a privately operated haven for children who have been rescued from abusive homes, child trafficking, botched sacrifice attempts, and other terrifying situations. We were able to visit their on-site medical clinic and a couple of classrooms in their school, hear from the social workers who help the children recover, and observe their new rehab facility that is currently under construction on the grounds.
It’s easy to make abstract pronouncements about accessible legal representation and just sentencing for all when the only person you’ve seen and spoken with is an accused remandee. However, interacting with victims of the crimes you’ve been reading about — some of whom have permanent injuries and other lasting effects — refines your commitment to these principles by reminding you how many people are affected by one person’s actions, and how badly a consistent justice system is needed. It truly takes divine wisdom to know how to work toward justice after seeing all sides of a story.
It was heartening to observe the holistic protection and restoration that Kyampisi provides to the children in its care, along with the many other child-focused NGOs and charities that operate throughout Uganda. I felt that our visit was a fitting way to round out our time in our host country. It put us in mind once more of the great responsibilities we are preparing to assume as future lawyers, in addition to those we already bear as fellow humans to care for the weak and defenseless.
This post was written by a student at Regent University School of Law. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice.