The African Transitional Justice Hub publishes analytical and reflective opinion pieces and commentary on key debates, emerging issues, best practices and lessons learnt relating to transitional justice on the African continent. These pieces highlight African ideas and experiences, while amplifying voices that are often side-lined in mainstream discussions of transitional justice.
If you would like to submit a piece for consideration, please contact the Opinions Editor Jasmina Brankovic at jbrankovic@csvr.org.za.
Our original opinion pieces can be republished, in print or online, under a Creative Commons license and with the following text: This piece was originally published by the African Transitional Justice Hub, an initiative of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
Environmental restorative justice and epistemic justice are key to integrating ideas of transitional justice and restorative practices to tackle environmental harms and climate change in Africa, writes Saniah Matengu.
Securing peace in Tigray requires a return to the core promises of Ethiopia’s transitional justice policy, namely restoring displaced communities, ensuring accountability, ending foreign military presence, and fostering inclusive governance, writes Deborah Banketa.
Lasting peace in Somalia requires addressing social grievances, healing past conflicts, and establishing a robust justice system, in addition to political reconciliation initiatives, writes Farhia Mohamud.
Ring-fenced funding support and communities of practice are central to strengthening the media’s underestimated role in framing, refereeing and facilitating transitional justice in Africa, writes Makmid Kamara.
The strategies of civil society organisations that work closely with victims and survivors are key to the implementation and monitoring of transformative institutional reforms as part of transitional justice, writes Andrew Songa.
Measures like public education committees and youth and children’s units within truth commissions, casting witnesses as national educators, rethinking truth commission names, and country studies centres can better integrate education into transitional justice, writes Baba G. Jallow.
Women-led and gender-sensitive climate action is key to sustainable peace, political stability and greater socioeconomic equality in Africa, writes Mary Izobo.
The South African government bodies tasked with investigating and prosecuting apartheid-era political crimes must face closer public scrutiny and take stronger action to fast-track long-overdue justice for victims’ families and survivors, writes Katarzyna Zdunczyk.
Integrating a transitional justice approach into climate finance negotiations and provision can help rectify historical wrongs, ensure fair distribution of resources, and support vulnerable populations in adapting to and mitigating the impacts of climate change, writes Augustine Njamnshi.
To ensure the lasting well-being and active citizenship of Sudanese survivors of conflict, international, state and civil society actors must integrate mental health and psychosocial support interventions into humanitarian, peacebuilding and transitional justice efforts, writes Amina Mwaikambo.
Transitional justice can be employed to address business-related human rights violations and a range of interrelated developmental and governance challenges in Africa, especially through the African Union’s Transitional Justice Policy, writes Bobuin Jr Valery Gemandze Oben.
Lessons from the post-genocide Rwandan experiment and guidance from the 2019 AU Transitional Justice Policy show that criminal accountability is still an indispensable part of transitional justice, writes Usani Odum.
Transitional justice in African countries must not only acknowledge but also actively engage with the gendered impacts of conflicts on all individuals, especially women and girls, writes Mary Izobo.
Transitional justice is key to building peace and stability in Sudan after years of impunity, especially in light of the current conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, writes Abdelmageed Yahya.
The African Union, the regional economic communities and African states must create and implement robust frameworks for witness protection in order to ensure the success of transitional justice measures on the continent, writes Emmanuel Ayoola.
With the recent coups d’état across Africa, it is time to examine the complex interplay between coups and the delicate realm of transitional justice, writes Bobuin Jr Valery Gemandze Oben.
Sustainable peace is unlikely to be achieved in African countries until mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) is mainstreamed in peacebuilding and transitional justice processes, writes Celeste Matross.
Enabling redress for victims of conflict-related sexual violence as well as sexual and gender-based violence requires universal access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, write Jemma Blacklaw, Lesego Sekhu and Sinqobile Makhatini.
Transitional justice policy making and processes in Africa need to address the economic consequences of conflict and violence, particularly for youth, in order to prevent their recurrence, writes Steven Rebello.
Delays in the implementation of South Sudan’s peace agreement are creating risk of renewed conflict and impunity, which can be addressed through citizen action, writes Emmanuel Ayoola.
The recent release of the Government White Paper on the TRRC Report demonstrates the importance of applying a victim-centred approach to the search for and identification of the forcibly disappeared, writes Joyce Mutoka.
The crisis of armed banditry and other violations in the North West of Nigeria should be addressed with traditional justice mechanisms within the framework of transitional justice, writes Idris Mohammed.
Transitional justice has become central to continental efforts to build and sustain peace in Africa, in line with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and commitment to Silence the Guns by 2030, writes Khabele Matlosa.
The just transition to a low-carbon Africa, which we need to address the climate crisis, must be rights-based and participatory to avoid exacerbating existing inequalities and driving conflict, writes Gugu Nonjinge.