Francis M. Ssekandi

Francis M. Ssekandi of Columbia University and Former Justice of Appeal of the currently renamed Supreme Court of Uganda fields questions about his presentation on “The Pursuit of Transitional Justice and African Traditional Values: A Clash of Civilizations.”

Francis M. Ssekandi

Attorney/ International Legal Consultant at Law and Counselor, IPM Associates, LLC. And Professor at Columbia University’s School of Law.

Mr. Francis M. Ssekandi graduated in 1965 with Bachelor of Law (Hons) from London and obtained his Master of Law from Columbia University in 1966. Mr. Ssekandi is an Attorney/International Legal Consultant with over 35 years of legal practice in various common law and civil law jurisdictions, in the areas of international project finance, international commercial law, international law and legal and judicial reform, and especially in adjudication, arbitration, mediation, civil conflict resolution and peacekeeping. He became a Judge of the High Court of Uganda in 1974. Furthermore Mr. Ssekandi has served over 19 years in the international civil service, as Deputy Director in the Office of Legal Affairs of the United Nations, Director, Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Liberia, and General Counsel of the African Development Bank. He has initiated many innovative institutional legal models for the delivery of UN programs, including the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the African Management Services Company (AMSCO), the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and United Nations Compensation Commission after the 1991 Iraq war. In 1996 he became Deputy to the Secretary General's Special Representative in Liberia and in 1997 he was appointed General Counsel of the African Development Bank. Mr. Ssekandi is currently a Lecturer-in-Law at the Columbia University School of Law and an Attorney/International Legal Consultant at Law and Counselor, IPM Associates, LLC.

With regard to Uganda, Ssekandi explores the unjust situation of granting amnesty to war criminals in exchange for witness accounts and ending the insurgencies. He argues that, “The Constitution is very clear. Every one who attempts by force of arms to overturn the Constitution commits treason punishable by death. We have to put in place the proper mechanism that can deter power grabbers and dreamers from imagining and then executing acts which are intended to attain power by force of arms. We have started a democratic process whereby power is attained and handed over through the democratic process, by the will of the majority of the people expressed in a free and fair election. This has to be reinforced by our actions.”