Kristof Titeca

Justification

The Lord’s Resistance Army has been brutally terrorizing the population in Northern Uganda, killing men and women; and abducting the children, who are used as child soldiers, porters or sex slaves. Since the summer of 2002, parents are sending their children every night to the safety of town, desperate by the nightly raids of the LRA on their children. This photo essay is about these children in northern-Uganda, who are called the ‘night commuters’. They visualise democracy (or a neglect of democracy), as they are neglected their basic rights protection by all sides of the conflict: most obviously by the rebels, who are cruelly abusing the children. However, also the government has been accused by several human rights groups (as Human Rights Watch) of being incapable to protect the population of Northern Uganda. Currently, democracy is being built by initiatives taken by international humanitarian actors and national government which provide basic facilities and a minimum rights protection for the children.