It is seven years since the first peace deal was signed in South Sudan and with it a commitment made to set up a African Union-backed up Hybrid Court for South Sudan (HCSS) to investigate and prosecute war crimes and other human rights violations committed in the conflict since 2011. But the creation of the HCSS has been delayed. The establishment of the HCSS is an opportunity for the AU to demonstrate African leadership on…
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CSRF Research Repository
The CSRF Research Repository aims to support greater contextual knowledge for policy makers, programme managers, and implementers by providing a searchable repository of research, analysis, and resources, and providing periodic updates on new research and analysis.
This paper explores the gendered nature of access to justice among South Sudanese refugees in Uganda’s settlements. It draws on qualitative research conducted in the three refugee hosting districts of Lamwo, Adjumani and Kiryandongo, between July and September 2021, including 73 individual interviews and groups discussions with a range of officials and refugees. The objectives of the paper are threefold. First, to map the institutions and authorities that govern the resolution of disputes in the…
This memo summarises research on security and justice from CRP’s five sites – DRC, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, and Syria – plus additional research on Sudan. Findings suggests that standard strategies for security and justice reform are routinely undermined by the dynamics of conflict. Security Sector Reform (SSR) and Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reintegration (DDR) policies often end up providing a mechanism through which different factions engaged in conflict can compete for funding, status, and participation…
This article draws on empirical data collected in Yei River County, South Sudan, to contribute to debates on hybrid governance in Africa. Current literature offers a limited understanding of the practical workings of hybridity, and particularly of whether and under what circumstances hybridity may meet the interests and solve the problems of citizens. This article discusses how subsequent historical attempts at state-building have left a complex and layered governance system and analyses how this system…
The horrific violations committed in South Sudan’s civil war led to the establishment of mechanisms ensuring the prosecution of serious crimes and reconciliation within communities shattered by war. Through a peace deal, three mutually supportive but independent institutions of transitional justice were formed: The Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing, The Hybrid Court for South Sudan and The Compensation and Reparation Authority. This article examines the extent to which these mechanisms can achieve their respective…
During an outbreak of violence in July 2016, a South Sudanese journalist was killed and international aid workers were brutally raped by government soldiers at the Terrain compound in South Sudan. Following intense international pressure, 11 soldiers were found guilty of various crimes by a specially created military court martial in 2018. As the first widely reported case in which perpetrators of conflict-related sexual violence were held accountable in South Sudan, this verdict is an…
South Sudan’s Initial transitional justice planning processes sought to engage communities on roles and viabilities of local justice in supporting transitional justice initiatives and mechanisms prescribed in the August 2015 Agreement. Nonetheless, the planning processes hit a snag, when the conflict reignited in July 2016. The working paper pursues the discussion about the role that local and indigenous reconciliation and justice processes can play in current transitional justice discourses and contends that existing practices and…
“Do not remain silent”: Survivors of Sexual violence in South Sudan call for justice and reparations, reveals aggravated acts of sexual violence against thousands of people across the country since hostilities began in December 2013. The report is the result of a joint research project between Amnesty International and 10 South Sudanese human rights defenders. Perpetrators come from both sides of the conflict, pitting the government forces of President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, against opposition…
We live in an era where the need to ensure proper administration of justice has never been so imperative. However, the fulfilment of this desire, as an aspiration of every citizen, depends largely on the competence, independence, and integrity of judges as the custodians of the laws. This brief discusses the significance of judicial independence to the administration of justice, particularly in the context of South Sudan. While the brief acknowledges that maladministration is inherent…
LSE’s Naomi Pendle paints an informative and insightful portrait of the challenges of reconciliation in South Sudan. Download
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