Young woman pictured in the shanty refugee camp of Dadaab. |December 2018. | Photo credit; Aljazeera.

The technical committee for the formation of the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing have concluded a three-day workshop on witness and victim protection mechanisms as provided for in the transitional justice process.

The workshop was facilitated by the Transitional Justice Working Group, a body tasked to safeguard and protect the rights of victims through their quest for justice and reparation.

It brought together different stakeholders from the Law Fraternity, Civil Society and transitional justice mechanism to discuss victims and witness protection under the would-be-established commission.

Dominic Ochan is a Vice Chairperson of Torit Civic Engagement Center.

Speaking at a press briefing after the workshop, he said the protection of witnesses and victims is necessary for them to feel safe and free to tell the truth.

“In exercise of their duties, the commission for truth, reconciliation and healing are expected to get the truth, and they will need victims and witnesses, but as witnesses come to expose certain things together with the victims, the perpetrators in some cases will never feel comfortable,” Dominic said.

“The perpetrators would want to do something bad or retaliate against somebody who exposed something they might have done, and in this case, the victims and witnesses are rendered in a situation of risk,” he added.

According to the Global Conflict Tracker, nearly 400,000 have been killed and 2 million civilians have been displaced during the conflict that started in 2013.

In February last year, the unity government announced it will establish the Hybrid Court to prosecute human rights violations during the civil war.

The Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing is tasked by the 2018 revitalized agreement to establish an accurate and impartial historical record of human rights violations, breaches of the rule of law, and excessive abuses of power committed by state and non-state actors.

It is also expected to investigate the causes of conflicts and their circumstances and administer fund to victims in conjunction with the Compensation and Reparation Authority, among others.

For his part, Taban Oliver, a member of the South Sudan Law Society said the context of witness and victims protection in the country will be extraordinarily challenging because the parties to the conflict are still in government.

“Witness protection in our context is so different. We are imagining that we are entering the commission for truth reconciliation and healing at a very particular time when those in government are the same people in government,

“So our context is going to be very challenging and is not going to be easy like that of the Gambia where they had to change the government in order to form the commission,” said Taban.

Taban also appealed to the peace guarantors to support and assist the commission in caring out their duties.

In April, the government launched public consultations for the establishment of Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing in Juba.

The technical committee were then mandated to collect public views across the 10 states and administrative areas, on how the commission should be formed.