Along with our partners CIGPJ, Rights for Peace is supporting SUNS, the Survivors Network South Sudan made up of state-level groups of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. Having facilitated its establishment as a national organisation, it was an important landmark that SUNS could be present in the South Sudanese Transitional National Assembly on 3 September 2024, we attended the second and third readings of two transitional justice Bills, designed to establish a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation and Healing (CTRH) and a Compensation and Reparation Authority (CRA) .
These are two of the three transitional justice institutions set out in Chapter V of the 2018 Peace Agreement (R-ARCSS), which also outlines a Hybrid Court as a third body, to hold perpetrators to account. Given the challenges and delays in progressing steps required by the Peace Agreement, such as adopting a new constitution and holding elections, there seems to be an acceptance that it may be early days for a Hybrid Court. As such it is already hard to imagine how a Truth Commission will safely fulfill its mandate given the shrinking civic space and limits on free speech.
The Commission has the mandate to:e
'Inquire into all aspects of human rights violations and abuses, breaches of the law and excessive abuse of power committed against any person or group by the South Sudan State, non-state actors, its agents or allies'
As regards victims, the Commission is also mandated to:
Recommend processes for the full enjoyment, by victims of the right to a remedy including the formulation of measures for reparation and compensation.
CIGPJ, SUNS and Rights for Peace have been advocating for the rights victims and survivors of conflict-related sexual violence for some years, and were pleased to see a provision for Interim Reparation included in the Bill, allowing it to order interim measures for the benefit of victims without needing to wait for its final report to be published.
The Commission will be able to summon persons to give testimony, grant amnesty for crimes (though there are conditions for this and it excludes crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes), inquire into documents or reports, take statements and subpoena persons to give testimony.
It will have the power to implement robust measures to protect victims and witnesses, in particular women, youth, persons with disabilities, the eldery and children, including closed hearings and the protection of the identities of victims and witnesses. It will be able to receive applications from alleged victims and identify perpetrators of human rights violations or crimes.
While the definition of who is a victim is very broad, and survivors of conflict-related sexual violence are not sufficiently mentioned, interim reparation can be ordered by the Commission avoiding the need to wait for its final report to be published and implemented - as was the case for most other Truth Commissions.
Interim services and support may be provided by the Commission to the victims such as women, youth, children and survivors of conflicts and of conflict related sexual violence.
The laws entered into force on 11 November 2024.
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