In a recent study, Feinstein researchers Anastasia Marshak, Teddy Atim, and Dyan Mazurana found that 13 years after a massacre in northern Uganda, survivors experienced significant physical disability, reduced financial resources, and increased food insecurity even when compared to the general war-affected population.

Experiencing war crimes resulted in physical and psychosocial trauma, with negative effects on health and wellbeing persisting across generations.

The findings from this study were presented by the Legal Representative of the Victims as testimony during Ongwen’s trial to give voice to the victims. The research illustrates how future studies in conflict and post-conflict contexts need to prioritize the collection of international humanitarian law violations, disability, and psychosocial trauma data to ensure better programming and policy.

Without appropriate services, disability and psychosocial trauma can have long-term consequences beyond the affected individual leading to a growing cycle of poverty.

These findings appear in the paper, “International humanitarian law violations in northern Uganda: victims’ health, policy, and programming implications,” which received the Best Paper Award from the Journal of Public Health Policy on November 14, 2023. The award, presented at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, recognizes “excellence in advancing public health policy research and practice through written scholarship.”

Read the open-access paper here.