Former TRRC Executive Secretary Dr. Baba Galleh Jallow just returned from the South Sudanese capital Juba where he spent the last two months sharing lessons and experiences from Gambia’s transitional justice process with the government and other stakeholders. Dr. Jallow was invited by the UNDP South Sudan office to advise the government and design a roadmap for the establishment and operationalization of a Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing (CTRH) and a Compensation and Reparation Authority (CRA).
In 2023, a South Sudanese delegation led by former Justice minister Madol Arol visited The Gambia to learn from the TRRC’s experiences. The delegation met with Dr. Jallow and former commissioners and staff of the TRRC at UN House, Cape Point.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, gained independence from Sudan in 2011. The gains of independence were threatened when in 2013, civil war broke out between factions of the former liberation army. The country is still dealing with pockets of conflict in various regions as well as the problem of long-standing inter-communal fighting over land and cattle.
A revitalized peace agreement signed in 2018 provided for the establishment of three transitional justice mechanisms to help the country reconcile and move forward. Among these mechanisms are the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing (CTRH), established by the CTRH Act, 2024, and the Compensation and Reparation Authority (CRA), established by the CRA Act, 2024. Together, the two mechanisms are expected to help South Sudan deal with its violent past, promote reconciliation and healing, and provide compensation and reparations to victims of human rights violations committed by all parties to the conflict. The Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing (CTRH) will be composed of seven commissioners: four South Sudanese nationals (two male, two female) and three non-South Sudanese nationals from other African countries, at least one of whom must be a female. The CTRH will operate for six years from the date of its inception, with the possibility of one extension by the President of South Sudan.
“It was a challenging but very rewarding experience,” says Dr. Jallow. “The Gambian and South Sudanese contexts are very different. Here we had a dictatorship while South Sudan had a violent civil war, which is still not entirely over in some parts of the country. But there were many useful lessons we could draw from the TRRC experience in coming up with a blueprint that suits the South Sudanese context.”
During his two months stay in Juba, Dr. Jallow had a series of engagements with various stakeholders, including the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and his adviser on transitional justice, members of the Peace and Security Committee of the National Legislative Assembly, senior UNDP officials, officials of the UN and AU Missions in South Sudan, international NGOs, advocacy groups and representatives of civil society organizations.
“These engagements were very helpful,” Dr. Jallow admits. “They provided a good window into some of the concerns and challenges South Sudan’s transitional justice process must deal with in order to stand any chance of success. One of the key concerns raised by various stakeholders is how a transitional justice process can succeed in a situation of partial ongoing conflict. However, we were able to suggest a roadmap and blueprint that could make the truth-seeking process itself a vehicle for peacemaking and peacebuilding in the country. I’m hoping that the CTRH will be established according to the guidelines provided in the roadmap. If that happens, South Sudan’s transitional justice process may well succeed beyond current expectations. The CTRH could become a model for other countries emerging from violent conflict situations.”
Dr. Jallow revealed that as of now, an independent panel for the selection of CTRH commissioners has been set up. The newly constituted selection panel will be responsible for screening applicants and making recommendations to the government for formal appointment of the four South Sudanese Commissioners. A call for applications for appointment as CTRH commissioner has been drafted and will soon be published in the media. The AU-UN Working Group responsible for the appointment of the three non-South Sudanese African commissioners is also expected to publish a call for applications in the near future. They are also in the process of setting up a panel of experts to coordinate the screening and appointment of the non-South Sudanese commissioners.
Concerning funding for the two proposed mechanisms, Dr. Jallow admits that a lot of resources would be required. “It is going to be a very expensive endeavor,” he said. “South Sudan is a large and very complex society with potentially many thousands of victims requiring support and compensation, including SGBV victims and children born out of conflict-related violence. The good news is that there is a lot of goodwill and support for South Sudan within the international community right now. If the government shows genuine willingness to move ahead with a credible transitional justice process, they may well get all the support they need to succeed. Moreover, South Sudan is an oil rich nation too, though the conflict in neighboring Sudan is affecting the flow of their oil revenue at the moment.”
It is expected that a hybrid court, also provided for in the 2018 revitalized peace agreement, will be established in the post-CTRH period to handle issues of accountability arising from human rights violations committed during the conflict.
