Of Justice, Accountability, and Reconciliation

2016 ◽  
pp. 181-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathrin Maria Scherr
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Addis Ababa ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
Ethnic Communities ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Peace Negotiations

This paper analyses South Sudan's long struggle for an inclusive reconciliatory process in the country from the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 to the peace negotiations in Addis Ababa in 2014/15 and highlights the difficulties that the country has faced in introducing a lasting initiative to bring about justice, achieve reconciliation and ensure accountability in the country. The author considers different judicial and non-judicial mechanisms as elements of a comprehensive transitional justice policy and suggests viable options for South Sudan to confront the historical grievances and to resolve the frictions and tensions that have persisted between the different warring groups and ethnic communities during the decades of war in South Sudan.

scholarly journals Timing of transitional justice mechanisms and the implications for the South Sudan peace process

2021 ◽  
Vol 9s2 ◽  
pp. 9-33
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Sakawa Magara
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Addis Ababa ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
The South ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Truth Telling

The South Sudan peace agreement provides for transitional justice mechanisms aimed at fostering justice and reconciliation. They include the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing (CTRH) and the Hybrid Court for South Sudan (HCSS). Drawing on qualitative data obtained from interviews, document reviews, and archival research conducted between October 2019 and June 2020 in Addis Ababa, Kampala, and Nairobi, this study delves into the current transitional justice discourses in South Sudan with a particular focus on truth-telling and accountability. The study finds that key contestations relate to when to initiate and implement transitional justice mechanisms, warning that, if not carefully timed, those mechanisms may have a negative impact on the peace process.

An Overview of the DDR Process Established in the Aftermath of the Revised Peace Agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC: Finally on the Right Track?

Global Jurist ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Capone
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Civilian Life ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Essential Step ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Colombian Government ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Specific Factors ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
The Right

Abstract The revised peace agreement between the Colombian Government and the FARC, officially approved by the Congress on 30 November 2016, covers several crucial issues, including the destiny of the FARC rebels in the aftermath of the world’s longest civil war. The establishment of an effective DDR process is an essential step to ensure that FARC's members will meaningfully transition into civilian life and it represents one of the most controversial aspects amongst those addressed during the four years peace negotiations that led to the signature of the current deal. The present article, after providing an overview of the essential features of DDR programmes and the context-specific factors that can either facilitate or hamper their implementation, will first look at Colombia’s past attempts to reintegrate former FARC combatants and then it will discuss the DDR process outlined in the peace deal under implementation, arguing that, in comparison to the previous efforts and at least on paper, it satisfies many of the key requirements for success, in primis being part of a comprehensive transitional justice process.

Making Peace on Paper Only

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-61
Author(s):  
Wendy James
Keyword(s):  
South Sudan ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Blue Nile ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Border Communities ◽  
Elite Level ◽  
International Border

Why did Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 leave a situation of intensifying conflict, rather than peace along the new international border between Sudan and South Sudan, following South Sudan’s independence in 2011? This chapter tries to answer that question by examining how different understandings of peace affected what was actually done in the CPA negotiations and implementation with reference to border communities, specifically those in Blue Nile State, one of the ‘Three Areas’ treated separately in the peace negotiations and in the final draft of the CPA. I argue that the CPA failed to acknowledge the international dimensions of the Sudanese civil war from 1983 onwards, specifically the politics of shifting relations with Ethiopia. The process of peace-making took place mainly at the elite level of local and international leaders, speaking in very general terms of the Sudanese ‘north’ as a whole, distinct from ‘the south’. The discourse promoted by IGAD itself rested on the assumption that the problem lay between these two entities. The professional peace-makers did not take sufficiently seriously the issues affecting local communities in the transitional zones, especially those who had endured twenty years of living on the shifting front lines of military conflict.

Norms can undermine Middle East and Africa transitions

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
Institutional Reform ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Short Transition ◽  
Political Settlement

Significance Transitions following a peace agreement are typically seen as major opportunities for democratisation and new constitution making, and sometimes for national dialogue, reconciliation, transitional justice and institutional reform. Outcomes, however, are often disappointing. Impacts The peace agreement and transition framework in South Sudan may face mounting setbacks, bringing its credibility into question. Civil society groups will struggle to get their views about transition heard. International and local peacebuilding NGOs may suffer more than other organisations from aid cuts. The Libya dialogue may aim for a limited outcome that prioritises a short transition to elections rather than a comprehensive transition. Calls may grow for a new approach to reach a political settlement in Yemen, given the meagre results of the existing UN mediation approach.

Seeking ‘Truth’ After Devastating, Multi-Layered Conflict

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Owiso Owiso
Keyword(s):  
Transitional Justice ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Truth Commission ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Government ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
Second Wave

Abstract In August 2015, the Government of South Sudan and other parties to the country’s civil conflict signed a peace agreement, the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan, aimed at ending the civil conflict that broke out on 15 December 2013. After this agreement failed to hold, South Sudan descended into a second wave of civil conflict. A recommitment to the agreement was secured through regional efforts on 12 September 2018. Dubbed the Revitalised Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan, the agreement provides a transitional justice architecture which includes a truth commission, a hybrid court and a reparations authority. This paper examines the potential of the proposed Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing to contribute towards sustainable transitional justice solutions in South Sudan, based on contemporary standards and practice of transitional justice. Through historical, descriptive and analytical approaches, the paper grapples with South Sudan’s complex truth-seeking journey following years of multi-layered conflict.

scholarly journals Transition Without Transformation: The Legacy of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 340-359
Author(s):  
Gene Carolan
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Resolution ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Transformative Justice ◽  
Transformative Potential ◽  
Legal Accountability

Abstract In recent years, the transitional justice framework has expanded to include a broader notion of transformative justice, which strives for socio-political reform in addition to legal accountability. Over the course of two civil wars, Sudan has grappled with various attempts at transition and transformation with mixed results. Though the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement brought an end to decades of North–South conflict, South Sudan’s subsequent descent into civil war has been characterised by a flawed transition and a lack of any immediate transformative potential. This paper analyses the Comprehensive Peace Agreement’s transitional mechanisms. In doing so, it explores how certain mechanisms frame the ‘meta-conflict’ about what the conflict is about, and how this can cut off a range of conflict resolution opportunities. It concludes by considering the legacy of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in contemporary Sudan and South Sudan, and how it might inform the prospective transitions in both countries.

The Kurdish Civil War and Peace Negotiations, 1994–1998

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110624
Author(s):  
Dana Ali Salih ◽  
Hawre Hasan Hama
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Contingency Model ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Military

The Kurdish Civil War between the military forces of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) began in 1994. Despite frequently occurring peace talks throughout the conflict, negotiations failed to bring about a durable settlement until the United States brokered the Washington Peace Agreement in 1998. This research explores why the earlier negotiations were unsuccessful, and whether it was only the US mediation in 1998 which made the difference. Although the US mediation was clearly an important factor, by employing the contingency model this research argues that both contextual variables and process variables determined the success of negotiations in 1998. Furthermore, they can explain the failure of the previous 4 years of negotiations.

Concluding Reflections

2020 ◽  
pp. 320-344
Author(s):  
Alex De Waal
Keyword(s):  
Agenda Setting ◽  
South Sudan ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Strategic Ambiguity ◽  
Peace Processes ◽  
South Sudanese ◽  
Theories Of Change ◽  
Core Issues

This chapter draws upon the contributions to this volume and adds additional reflections on peacemaking in Sudan and South Sudan, to draw out some patterns and general conclusions. It frames the analysis within the theories of change implicit in international and domestic Sudanese approaches to peacemaking. The principal argument is that peace processes should be seen as an extension of politics, characterized by strategic ambiguity, pursuing parallel tracks, and positioning for future opportunities that cannot be identified in advance. By contrast, international peacemakers’ theories of change are structured to achieve a singular unified settlement, or to pursue external interests. Sudanese/South Sudanese civic actors’ strategies go beyond ‘inclusion’ to agenda setting and generating coalitions for change. These differences are illustrated with reference to how the Comprehensive Peace Agreement managed its core issues (economy and security) and its marginal or excluded issues (Abyei, the ‘two areas’ and Darfur).

A Flawed Formula for Peacemaking and Continued Violence in Darfur

2020 ◽  
pp. 212-229
Author(s):  
Partha Moman
Keyword(s):  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
Coercive Diplomacy ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Standard Formula ◽  
The World ◽  
Key Factor

This article seeks to contribute to understandings of peacemaking failure in Darfur, during the negotiations in Abuja from 2004-2006 that led to the 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement. It argues that a key factor in explaining peacemaking failure, was the reliance on a standard formula for peace negotiations used across the world. Peacemakers, in and around Abuja, worked by assuming the existence of a limited number of cohesive warring parties, enabling a comprehensive agreement and consensus between these groups, and ensuring that this result could be enshrined in a logical written document. The use of this formula, although seemingly logical, entrenched pathologies in the Abuja negotiations – exclusion of certain constituencies, the use of simplistic narratives to frame the conflict, coercive diplomacy, an overactive mediation – that in turn contributed to the continuation and even escalation of violent conflict in Darfur. The article concludes by suggesting potential pathways to decentering this dominant formula for conducting peace negotiations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document