The continent was also asked to co-operate with the International Criminal Court by arresting fugitive warlords against whom the ICC issued arrest warrants.
Speaking during the opening of the International Criminal Court Review Meeting in Kampala, Uganda, United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, warned world leaders the era of impunity was over, adding a new age of accountability was setting in slowly.
"In this new age of accountability, those who commit the worst of human crimes will be held responsible," he added. "Whether they are rank-and-file foot soldiers or military commanders...whether they are lowly civil servants following orders, or top political leaders, they will be held to account."
The secretary general said the ICC needs universal support if it is to become an effective deterrent and an avenue of justice. "Only then will perpetrators have no place to hide...no government or justice system that is complicit in international crimes can any longer shield the perpetrators from justice," he said.
Ki-Moon's predecessor at the UN, Kofi Anan, also said it was time for accountability and not impunity, urging delegates in Kampala to ensure all the serious crimes go punished.
Annan said it was shameful that the powerful countries constituting the permanent members of the UN Security Council, plus six of the G-20 members, are still shying away from the ICC at the time when the world seeks to end impunity.
"What sort of leadership will absolve the powerful on the rules they apply to the weak," wondered the former UN secretary general.
President Yoweri Museveni, however, challenged the meeting to first draw a distinction between just and unjust conflicts.
Museveni told the over 2000 delegates that there was need to clearly distinguish between a terrorist from a freedom fighter.
"Who is a freedom fighter and who is a terrorist? And if a conflict is just, what method do you use to execute that cause?" asked the president, who described his 45-year experience as a freedom fighter "fighting impunity".
Delegates from the 111 state parties to the Rome Statute and others non-state parties to the Statute, like the United States of America, yesterday started the 11-day deliberation of proposals that might result into a possible amendment of the ICC statute.
Key among the proposals to amend the 1998 Rome Statute include the inclusion of crime of aggression on the list of those that can be tried by the ICC.
The court is currently handling war crimes and crimes against humanity from various countries, including five cases from Africa.
The cases being investigated by the ICC are atrocities committed by the commanders of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, the post-election violence in Kenya and war crimes committed by Congo's ex-Vice President Jean Pierre Sudanese President Omar El-Bashir and Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC) militia group leader Thomas Lubanga.
President Museveni said any war or conflict that targets non-combatants should be considered as a crime of aggression.
"There must be a laid down definition of whether the conflict is a just one or not," he said, adding, "if the method include raping women, destroying means of sustenance, then that is unjust war whose perpetrators should be checked by the ICC."
He told the conference that Uganda has lost over 800,000 citizens to wars and violence, out of which 70,000 skulls of the victims had been reserved in some 33 mass graves in the country.
The President of the ICC, Judge Sang-Hyun Song said it would be good if the state parties to the Rome Statute continued with the momentum they started with, 12 years ago, when it came into existence
ICC chief prosecutor, Louis Moreno Ocampo said millions of people who suffered under the hands of Joseph Kony's Lord Resistance Army, should be compensated without further delay.
"The millions of LRA victims in Northern Uganda don't need to wait for trial to be assisted; they need compensation and assistance now," Ocampo said.
He said the states priority should be nothing else but arresting the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, who has continued to cause havoc against humanity.
"In the last one and half years the LRA has killed almost 2,000 persons in southern Sudan, The Democratic of Congo and Central Africa Republic and displaced more than 300,000 persons, this is the cost of impunity and if we care about victims we need to implement the arrest warrants pending since July 2005," ICC chief prosecutor added. He also called for the arrest of those indicted by the court.
He said the aim of ICC was to end impunity saying that the genocide in Rwanda, the DRC and Somalia was a perfect example of what could happen if the international community ignored its responsibilities.
He said: "never again will victims of atrocities be ignored, this is the time of action, to show how the law is implemented."
He warned political leaders and military officers of all ranks that no one is beyond reach.