THE STATE OF TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE IN AFRICA: “Silencing the Guns in the Context of COVID-19: Progress, problems and prospects”

The Department of Political Affairs of the African Union Commission (AUC), with technical support by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) will host the fourth Edition of the African Transitional Justice Forum virtually on 26 to 28 October 2020. The Forum is an annual multi-stakeholder platform aimed at reviewing the state of Transitional Justice (TJ) in Africa. At the heart of this review is the identification of emerging issues that present new opportunities for transitional justice theory, practice and policy interventions. While this edition of the Forum is the fourth in a row, it is the second continental dialogue following the adoption of the African Union Transitional Justice (AUTJ) Policy in February 2019. The AUTJ Policy is a continental framework that provides guidance to African Union Member States on how to recover from protracted violent conflicts while in the process building peace, strengthening democratic governance and advancing socio-economic development.

Another important development on TJ in Africa is the Study on Transitional Justice and Human and People’s Rights in Africa by the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (TJ Study). Both the AUTJ Policy and the TJ Study represent key instruments of the AU on transitional justice for guidance to AU Member States and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on how to transition from war to peace and from authoritarianism to democracy avoiding relapse into conflict and instability.

The 2020 Forum will be convened within a context that presents opportunities and challenges for transitional justice in Africa. The African Union has declared 2020 as the year of “Silencing the Guns: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development”. This is significant especially given that silencing the guns is one of the flagship projects of Agenda 2063-The Africa We Want.

During the 2013 Golden Jubilee of the Organisation of African Unity and African Union under the theme “Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance”, African leaders adopted the 50th Anniversary Solemn Declaration in which they unequivocally reaffirmed “not to bequeath the burden of conflicts to the next generations of Africans” . The Forum will also take place in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that has seen many African countries invoking national emergency laws, enforcing stricter border controls and international travel bans in attempts to curb the spread of the virus. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the halting of ongoing transitional justice processes, further delaying justice for victims and exposing added layers of vulnerability for victims brought about by inequality and crisis-related socio-economic challenges.

The fourth edition of the Forum will focus on the theme “Silencing the Guns in the Context of COVID-19: Progress, Problems and Prospects”. It will unearth TJ processes within the context of the AU theme of silencing the guns and the COVID-19 pandemic that continues to ravage the African continent with the aim of proffering a sustainable solution to insecurity and the pandemic in Africa, while protecting human and peoples’ rights.

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You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: from Oct 26-28, 2020 02:00 PM Nairobi Register in advance for this meeting:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIld--qrjwiH9dFE6DbuE1Osx0QeoybSAdj

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