South Sudan's English Daily Newspaper
"We Dare where others fear"
By Benjamin Takpiny
The government chief whip in the transitional national legislative assembly, Rebecca Joshua Ukwaci said that the establishment of justice and accountability mechanisms under chapter 5 of the peace agreement, is crucial to achieving a lasting peace in the country.
“We need justice so that we have sustainable peace for our country, we have had enough of problems; the next generation should live in a spirit of peace, so the issue of justice is very important and it’s part of human rights, and rights are rights of a human being, we never want those rights to be taken away,” Ukwaci said in Juba on Friday.
She was speaking during the dialogue and launch of the Women’s Rights Report on Compensation and Reparations Authority (CRA) organized by the Centre for Inclusive Governance, Peace and Justice.
Ukwaci said that Chapter 5 is very important like other chapters of the peace agreement.
“You can’t have Chapter 1 without Chapter 4, so when we talk about transitional justice, it’s one of those important chapters. Therefore, the other chapters are equally important but time now is availing itself for us to talk about transitional justice, sometimes we put it aside. We think only formation of the government is important and we say, hallelujah, it’s done. Again, we say, no, no, no, we are talking about security,” she said.
Ukwaci said that there are a lot of things to be done when it comes to transitional justice and there is a lot that is going to come to parliament.
She said parliament is going to deal soon with some of these issues in chapter 5.
Margarete Wendels, First Secretary Political Affairs, Stabilization, Humanitarian Aid of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, said that the implementation of the transitional justice provisions foreseen in the revitalized peace agreement, such as the establishment of the compensation and reparation authority, the hybrid court, remains crucial.
“I call on the South Sudanese authorities to fight impunity for perpetrators of sexual and gender based violence and other serious human rights violations and give survivors the justice they deserve and desperately seek,” she said.
Wendels said that transitional justice measures are therefore not an end in themselves, but rather a process that provides the opportunity to initiate and promote long-term social, political and economic transformations based on respect for human rights in the aftermath of a breakdown in societies resulting, for instance, from conflict.
“To that extent, transitional justice can offer an opportunity for improved security, development and reconciliation measures to be conceptualized and implemented in an integrated and mutually reinforcing manner in order to achieve the ultimate goal of sustainable peace and rule of law,” she said.
She added that it is alarming that serious violations of human rights still often go unpunished, thus creating a climate of impunity for perpetrators that makes these incidents more likely to happen time and again.
“The consequences of such crimes are not only felt by the survivors, but also by their families their children and their communities, they destroy human lives and the fabric of communities It also fuels more inter-communal violence,” Wendels said.
She congratulated the Centre for Inclusive Governance, Peace and Justice and the Women’s Rights Organization for the job well done in bringing grassroots views to important peace mechanisms such as the traditional justice process, adding that a people-centred and context-driven transitional justice remains the key and immediate objective of sustainable peace.
“As you deliberate on the key findings of the Women’s Rights Consultations on the Compensation and Preparation Authority Law, I can only advocate you listen to these grassroots views. I am aware that the cabinet recently passed the two transitional justice draft legislations and these bills shall be submitted before the Assembly for deliberations,” Wendels said.
“We all are aware that this cannot be done without the role of legislature. I would like to assure you that Germany is continuing to stand with her support for a range of projects, from human peace and security to human rights, humanitarian aid and development and We encourage the people of South Sudan to come together and become agents of change for a better future,” she said further.
Jackline Nasiwa, Executive Director of Centre for Inclusive Governance, Peace and Justice said that transitional justice remains critical to shaping their own transitional justice for South Sudan.
She said that citizens’ participation remains critical for them at the Center for Inclusive Governance, because they believe citizens play a big role in nation building and excluding those voices is likely to design programs that will never be sustained.
“When they are rising up to speak, this will help us in terms of understanding how we can run our families, and this is the same to nation building, without hearing from the citizens we are likely not to know their problems and challenges,” Nasiwa said.
“As we go for elections we need to go with a reconciled heart, and that means the transitional justice mechanism, the Commission for Truth, Healing and Reconciliation becomes critical for us to shape our democratic transition,” she added.
