LEGAL SECTION

The BUU does not have a legal department as such; however, in partnership with the Uganda Christian Lawyers’ Fraternity, also located at Baptist House, they work closely to demonstrate God’s heart for the provision of access to justice and peaceful resolution of conflict. This is achieved through marrying best mission principles with good development practice focused upon churches as the agents of change in society. Many of the problems faced are pastoral, some are administrative but all have a legal dimension.

Land Issues

Land issues are the most regular cause for serious disputes with Baptist churches and it reflects a general malaise across the country. Nowhere is this problem more acutely felt than in the post conflict reconstruction of northern Uganda.

Bms Mission Stations At present, BUU share BMS mission stations with UCLF in Kasese and Gulu. Both these centres form regional legal aid outlets and reference points for pastors and other local leaders requiring assistance on community rights protection. The BUU also have a formal agreement in place for the training of local leaders through the Baptist associations in Pallisa, Kabale, Soroti, Katakwi, Kasese, Gulu and Busia/Lumino. Here the associations host CRA sets (community rights activist’s teams) of around 50 local leaders who work at community rights protection by connecting the grassroots to the institutions that provide justice.

Typically the CRA sets will be trained in the laws of Uganda, how to gather evidence, identify different kinds of abuse, how to resolve low level disputes and where to report certain rights abuses. Each CRA is furnished with a Pastors and Community Rights Manual detailing legal advice to share with the community on a range of legal issues. They are further given an Alternative Dispute Resolution manual to assist them is resolving conflicts in the community and they are regularly followed up. Along with legal aid services which account for around 100 cases per year, UCLF have trained around 1500 CRAs and around 22,000 community members in rights protection over the last 4 years.

BUU Contribution to UCLF

The BUU contribute enormously to this work by not only hosting UCLF but also seconding BMS missionary staff to assist UCLF operations. Jenny Riddell works on legal education and legal aid in Kasese, Steve and Caroline Sanderson on access to justice services in northern Uganda and Matthew Price works on criminal justice outreach in Kampala. Apart from their UCLF involvements, BUU also has relied upon its legal mission staff for the development of policy manuals, advice on land matters, redrafting the constitution, constitutional advice, electoral regulations and oversight, inter-church disputes, employment law advice, document drafting and procedural oversight at AGMs. In other cases BUU pastors have drawn upon the UCLF access to justice services in the case of personal problems such as arrests, personal injury claims, prosecutions, employment disputes, land matters and registration of supplementary ministries and schools as NGOs.