Two new publications on South Sudan's process towards Reconciliation and Justice

This brief assesses options for the framing of the mandate of South Sudan’s Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing (CTRH), with a particular focus on the temporal scope of the CTRH’s inquiries.

The brief is structured in four sections. The first section summarizes the provisions on the CTRH in the August 2015 Agreement for the Resolution of the Crisis in South Sudan (ARCISS). The second section examines issues relating to the substantive and temporal scope of the CTRH mandate. The third section emphasizes the need for a consultative process to inform the public about the CTRH and to support a citizen-owned and driven truth-seeking process. The final section provides concluding remarks and a series of recommendations to inform the design and establishment of the CTRH.

Policy Brief – Expanding the Reach of Justice and Accountability in South Sudan

This policy brief explores various options to consider in expanding the reach of justice and accountability processes as part of any post-conflict transition in South Sudan.

The brief is structured in three sections. After a short introduction, the first section examines comparative state practice in the use of amnesties. Though often viewed as impediments to justice and accountability, partial or conditional amnesties can also provide a useful means of coping with widespread conflict-related abuses and states’ inability to bring all suspects to trial. The second section presents survey data on perceptions of amnesties and the overlap between the victim and perpetrator population to try to understand the implications of conditional amnesties in the South Sudanese context. The third section provides policy options for South Sudan to consider in its transitional justice program moving forward, most notably, the use of alternative sentencing and referrals to customary justice mechanisms for certain categories of perpetrators who admit wrongdoing and seek forgiveness.