Justice seen through the eyes of Ugandan Nobel Peace Prize nominee

Ugandan social worker and activist Victor Ochen has been nominated for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. Ochen, who is 33, is the youngest African to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He and the organisation he founded, the African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET), were nominated for their work with war victims in northern Uganda.

Ochen, who himself was a victim of the war in northern Uganda, engages people and communities in the transitional justice process. The people he speaks with say that “a courtroom seems too threatening, too intimidating, and these are the people whose needs are very real, very much now, not tomorrow. When you work with the community, your definition of justice becomes: what do people want. That guarantees non-repetition. That’s the justice people want.”