President Salva Kiir and First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar during the official opening of the conference on Transitional Justice Mechanism in Juba - May 15, 2023 Credit: Moses Awan/Eye Radio

Several state governors, chief administrators and international experts are in Juba to attend the national conference on the Transitional Justice System, on Monday.

According to Cabinet Minister Dr. Martin Elia Lomuro, the conference will improve the draft bills for the establishment of the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing as well as the Compensation and Reparation Authority.

The government has invited experts from South Africa, The Gambia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Congo, and Ethiopia to share their post-war experience and how their countries transitioned to peace.

Others include senior officials from the African Union, IGAD, the Diplomatic Corps, UN Mission in South Sudan, UNDP, and legal and transitional justice experts.

Commenting on the matter, the national Minister of Information Michael Makuei said the conference is part of the government’s commitment to implement chapter five of the ARCSS.

“We want to hold this conference to explain to the people and we will also bring experts from other countries who will come and talk to us about how these commissions are set up and how they can operate,” Makuei said in an interview with Eye Radio on Thursday.

“This is what we are doing and we have invited experts from different parts of the World, who have had the same situation so that they come and talk to us.”

“Countries like South Africa for example, Rwanda for example; these are the countries that had experienced this thing before, and these are the countries that we are inviting their experts to come and talk to us about this so that we see how best we can moderate.”

Last month, the cabinet approved a proposal for the conduct of a conference on transitional justice mechanisms under the theme “Building a sustainable South Sudan model for the transitional justice system.”

The conference was under the Compensation and Reparation Authority as well as the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing as enshrined in chapter five and chapter six of the R-ARCSS.