Peace vs Justice with Klaartje Quirijns












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            * Peace vs Justice with Klaartje Quirijns
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            On the 16th March 2018, and supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Faculty of Hu

            Charles University was host to a screening of the 2012 film Peace vs Justice, followed by 
            director Klaartje Quirijns (NL).
            The film surrounds a conflict that has continued in Central Africa for more than three dec

            Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, and the Governments of various central A
            although the film was largely focused on Uganda. This documentary had many underlying poin
            its six-year age, seemed relevant in geopolitics today. It explored the conflict between d

            militarism, the real-world effectiveness of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the
            Justice.

            It was evident while watching the film that the director had tried to show the ‘out of tou
            larger organisations, like the ICC, which demand a pure form of Justice, centred around th
            crime and local justice; created out of conflict, compromise and atonement. The film cut b

            of figures involved in the conflict, talking about getting their abducted children back, a
            sterile discussions in the offices of the ICC in The Hague – two worlds which were clearly
            fully meet.

            Having said this, the nature of the documentary didn’t seem to show the ideas of the ICC a
            just different to those that you might find on a local level. This is an interesting debat
            the heart of criminal jurisprudence and sentencing, whether repentance is a more effective

            punishment, whether rehabilitation and forgiveness are more necessary to a society than de
            course, whether these concepts have to be mutually exclusive from one and other.
            It came under debate in the Q & A after the screening how applying international justice t

            leave a lot to be desired. It was established in the film that of a possible five hundred 
            prosecuted in the conflict, only three would be. Further to this, the political nature of 
            a bar to justice. Dominic Ongwen, former second in command of the LRA, is currently standi

            ICC, however his culpability remains a matter of debate – Mr Ongwen having been abducted a
            a child soldier by Joseph Kony (Leader of the LRA) himself. The question has to be asked w
            Ongwen is being tried internationally for the sake of justice or simply for the appearance

            conflict that the international community has had a stake in for nearly a decade.
            Of course, in her answers to questions Quirijns didn’t pretend to know the all the answers
            very clearly an intricate and complex problem. As she talked about the nature of creating 

            the creative process can lead you down unexpected roads, it seemed that her motivation, li
            documentary makers, is to draw attention to issue and to expose their nature. She said she
            that Peace vs Justice received ongoing academic interest globally. If the film’s focus was

            of international justice, then it is going to take international debate; politically, acad
            socially to make a change.
            The screening finished, very briefly, on a question about Quirijns’ thoughts on another do

            the topic ‘KONY 2012’ – an online phenomenon which is the sole source of most people’s kno
            conflict in Central Africa. If anything, this was a good way to end the debate, on a warni
            can bring about change and action in a globalised world, however we should be careful to u

            full complexities of a problem before we act.