The Pre-Trial Chamber III of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has confirmed 39 charges against warlord Joseph Kony, committing him to trial before a Trial Chamber.
Although the charges have been confirmed, the trial can only proceed once Kony is present before the ICC, as the Rome Statute—the Court’s founding treaty—does not permit trials in the absence of the accused.
Pre-Trial Chamber III, composed of Judge Althea Violet Alexis-Windsor (Presiding), Judge Iulia Antoanella Motoc, and Judge Haykel Ben Mahfoudh, found substantial grounds to believe that Kony is responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed between 1 July 2002 and 31 December 2005 in northern Uganda.
Kony, the founder and leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), is accused of orchestrating widespread atrocities during a protracted non-international armed conflict between the LRA and the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF), along with associated local units, in the Acholi, Lango, and Teso regions.
According to the Chamber, the LRA conducted a widespread and systematic campaign of violence against civilians in northern Uganda—particularly those perceived to be supporting the Ugandan government—and sustained itself through crimes including mass abductions, forced recruitment, and sexual enslavement.
The judges found substantial grounds to believe that Kony is responsible for 29 charges as an indirect co-perpetrator, or alternatively, for ordering and inducing crimes committed by the LRA during attacks on schools and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, as well as systemic crimes against abducted women and children.
These charges include crimes against humanity—such as murder, attempted murder, torture (or alternatively, severe abuse and mistreatment as inhumane acts), enslavement, forced marriage, forced pregnancy, rape, and persecution on political, age, and gender grounds—and war crimes, including intentionally directing attacks against civilians, murder, torture or cruel treatment, rape, conscripting children under 15, using children in hostilities, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy, pillaging, and destruction of property.
The Chamber also found substantial grounds to believe that Kony is directly responsible for 10 additional charges against two victims, including crimes against humanity (enslavement, forced marriage, rape, forced pregnancy, torture, persecution on age and gender grounds) and war crimes (rape, torture, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy).
The Chamber rejected the Defence’s request for a conditional stay of proceedings. Neither the Defence nor the Prosecutor can immediately appeal the decision, as the Chamber ruled that the time limit for seeking leave to appeal will be suspended until Kony is notified of the decision upon his surrender to the Court.
The Warrant of Arrest for Joseph Kony was issued under seal on 8 July 2005, amended on 27 September 2005, and unsealed on 13 October 2005.
On 12 December 2024, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber III scheduled the confirmation of charges hearing for 9 September 2025, to be held in the suspect’s absence. On 3 June 2025, the Appeals Chamber upheld the criteria allowing confirmation proceedings in absentia.
The hearing took place on 9 and 10 September 2025 at the ICC seat in The Hague, in Kony’s absence. He was represented by Defence Counsel Peter Haynes, KC.
