A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to produce social change by helping marginalized communities to become advocates for social justice and claim their rights

Transitional Justice in Central Africa

Rebuilding post-conflict societies requires recognition of survivors’ rights and ensuring that survivors have a voice in the decision-making processes that affect them. This approach has featured in transitional justice systems whereby traditional mechanisms allows participation of survivors leading to reconciliation.

Transitional justice generally refers to a range of approaches that post-conflict states may use to address past human rights abuses and usually includes both judicial and non-judicial mechanisms, such as truth commissions. The most important component of transitional justice is the reconciliation aspect which facilitates the healing process of the survivors. Survivor Corps looks beyond victimhood to recognise the need for reconciliation as one of the means to survivors’ healing.

Traditional justice reflects the desires of societies to rebuild social trust, while ensuring unity and reconciliation. In front of the victim, the perpetrator sits before the panel of “people of integrity” who, elected by the community, will facilitate the process and decide on the perpetrator’s fate. The perpetrator tells the whole truth and asks for forgiveness from his victim.

The recent developments in Northern Uganda demonstrate the need for support. The Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) reached agreement on an accountability and reconciliation accord. The agreement proposes a transitional justice model which also provides for holding perpetrators accountable through traditional justice (Mato Oput Courts), a mechanisms indigenous to Northern Uganda.

The Arusha Accord on peace and reconciliation in Burundi, signed in August 2000, called for the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) and the establishment of the special court to prosecute perpetrators.



Regional Research Material

• Peace versus Justice: Truth and Reconciliation Commissions and War Crimes Tribunals in Africa

• The Role of Informal Justice System in Fostering the Rule of Law in Post Conflict Situations: The Case Study of Burundi: Center for humanitarian Dialog Report, July 2005. By Tracy Dexter JD and Dr. Philippe Ntahombaye.

• Building a Future on Transitional Justice for Burundi: A long Winding Road: Peace and Justice. Nuremberg (Workshop Report 25-27 June 2007)

• Rule of Law Through Imperfect Bodies? The Informal Justice Systems of Burundi and Somalia

• From Camp to Hill: Rentergration of Released Prisoners in Rwanda

• International Conference on Peace and Justice, Nuremberg, Germany (Report 25-27 June 2007)