David Deng, a member of the Transitional Justice Working Group - Courtesy

The Technical Committee on Transitional Justice has questioned the presentation of the bill to the cabinet for the establishment of the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing or CTRH before the public consultation is completed.

In May last year, the government conducted an internal public consultation to gather the views of people on how they want the commission to look.

And in August this year, a public consultation was reportedly conducted at the refugee camp in Ethiopia.

According to the group, the legislation should only commence after public consultation is complete, but it noticed the bill was tabled before the Council of Ministers about two weeks ago.

Apio Moses, the Deputy Chairperson of the Technical Committee for the establishment of the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing says it is important for the public to understand how the views collected during the process are integrated into the bill.

“I am feeling that the right thing needs to be done. Instead of running with the legislation, instead of moving forward, these bills need to be validated because these are technical aspects that have been drawn and when the citizens are informed,” Apio told Journalists in a press briefing.

“The citizens will have a take, they have a stake and they also have the ownership of the processes and including the legislation.”

“It is a critical moment that we need to know how the views that were collected from all the ten states and administrative areas including those that are coming from the refugee camps are integrated into the enabling legislation for the establishment of the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing”.

On his part, David Deng, a member of the Transitional Justice Working Group commended the drafting of the legislation but called for the validation of the bill before enactment to allow the incorporation of the people’s views.

“We are all happy that the legislation has been developed. The legislation according to the peace agreement was supposed to be developed three months into the transition. Here we have more than three years into the transition with just one year left,” said Deng.

“It is good they developed the legislation; it is good that they have consulted with citizens but let’s not make this whole process fail just in the last step,” he said.

“Maintain the spirit of openness, the spirit of consultation, and inclusiveness and let this legislation be validated before it is enacted. Give people access to it so that they can see it.”

“The process will benefit from inputs from citizens, we don’t need a Truth Commission and Reparation Program that is imported from another country”.

Transitional Justice falls under Chapter 5 of the Revitalized Agreement of the Conflict of the Republic of South Sudan (R-ACRSS).

Transitional Justice is frequently defined as comprising prosecutions, truth-seeking initiatives, reparations measures, and institutional reform and reconciliation.

The process is essential to building and sustaining peace in a nation that has just emerged from war and has experienced massive human rights abuses, immense suffering, loss of life and Impunity.