The South Sudan peace agreement provides for transitional justice mechanisms aimed at fostering justice and reconciliation. They include the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing (CTRH) and the Hybrid Court for South Sudan (HCSS). Drawing on qualitative data obtained from interviews, document reviews, and archival research conducted between October 2019 and June 2020 in Addis Ababa, Kampala, and Nairobi, this study delves into the current transitional justice discourses in South Sudan with a particular focus…

Executive Summary South Sudan’s peace process remains in intensive care, its health dependent on continual attention from its external sponsors, namely neighboring governments and the international community. This is not sustainable. At worst, it provides opportunities for the military and political elite to continue to run the country in pursuit of their own interests. At best, it buys time to create a more substantial peace process that can enact more far-reaching change. This policy brief…

The Politics of Numbers: On Security Sector Reform in South Sudan, 2005-2020 is the first comprehensive study of what has happened to South Sudan’s military forces since the end of the Sudanese second civil war in 2005. Based on extensive fieldwork in the country, the report argues that all of the international community’s efforts to create a unified armed forces in South Sudan have paradoxically only escalated the process of fracturing that led to the current…

Refugees are one of the most affected yet least consulted groups when it comes to issues of peace and conflict in South Sudan. This report attempts to address that gap by presenting findings of refugee interviews in Ethiopia and Uganda. Understanding and incorporating their views into the peace processes is crucial to ensuring that the needs of this substantial group are considered. This will also help deliver a more inclusive and durable peace process. Download

From October to November 2018, the South Sudan Civil Society Forum (SSCSF), a coalition of more than two hundred South Sudanese civic organizations, surveyed 1,147 people in five locations in South Sudan and a refugee camp in Uganda to better understand their views on the peace process and the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS). The report summarizes the main findings and recommendations. Among the report’s recommendations is that…

This paper examines the IGAD-led peace process for South Sudan from 2013 to 2015. Viewed through a prism of mediation best practice, it is a critical assessment of the attempt to negotiate a settlement of the conflict and a distillation of lessons learned. While singular conclusions are hard to draw, the paper concludes that the process may have helped to slow South Sudan’s civil war and provided a platform to confront the fundamental changes required…

This Issue Brief analyses Taban Deng’s history and his current place in South Sudan. In doing so, it draws on a new HSBA Working Paper on Unity state—A State of Disunity: Conflict Dynamics in Unity State, South Sudan, 2013–158—which is being released together with this Brief. Download

This briefing paper examines the underlying triggers of the mid- December 2013 conflict. It provides policy suggestions for sustainable peace in South Sudan, which include accountability for the crimes committed and monitoring of the proposed transitional power-sharing arrangement. Link to publication

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