Giving Compass' Take:

• Yvonne Darkwa-Poku shares insights into the importance of African-led transitional justice and a policy structure to facilitate the process. 

• How can funders best support communities and countries in their transitional justice efforts? 

• Learn about African-led healthcare solutions. 

Across Africa, there is an exciting regional dynamic that is affirming transitional justice processes shaped by local leaders and communities and rooted in shared experiences and contextual realities.

Over the last three decades, several transitional justice initiatives sought to address mass atrocities in Africa. But these transitional justice processes were largely led by international partners from outside the African continent, and the interventions typically had little bearing to realities on the ground and often failed to sufficiently address the underlying systemic and structural causes and enablers of mass human-rights violations. In addition, these initiatives have overwhelmingly focused on offering narrow, prosecutorial justice with only minimal resources directly addressing the needs of victims and communities.

Today, the concept of transitional justice continues to gain significant momentum within Africa and is taking on a character that emerges from the African experience and aspirations for justice articulated in African voices. These efforts are predicated on the urgent need to tackle impunity and horrific violations of human rights; build and rebuild trust in public institutions; reconstruct social fabric; promote coexistence; and facilitate peace and reconciliation at the continental, regional, national, and community levels. Transitional justice has potential to meet these needs. It requires prioritizing victims and marginalized people in the justice process, to hold perpetrators accountable, and rebuild trust in communities and institutions.

African civil society organizations, regional bodies, and national government institutions are advancing in skill, content knowledge, and expertise in this field. Coalitions and networks have been established to work on transitional justice concerns, and a robust, active movement that is engaged in national and regional debates has emerged. This movement is implementing actions, generating knowledge, and seeking answers to some of the local transitional justice challenges that they are well-positioned to handle.

In response to this momentum, we partnered with another U.S.-based private foundation to support the African Union’s efforts through the Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation to develop a first-of-its-kind policy: the African Union Transitional Justice Policy. This Policy provides guidance to African states emerging from conflict in their pursuit of accountability, sustainable peace, justice, and reconciliation. Rather than burdening member states with new obligations or supplanting their national efforts in the implementation of transitional justice processes, the Policy is a stand-alone document that seeks to complement such initiatives and emphasizes the need for African institutions and organizations to take the lead in its implementation.

Read the full article about African-led transitional justice by Yvonne Darkwa-Poku at MacArthur Foundation.