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VOLUME 1 OF REPORT
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Introduction
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Mandate of the TRC
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Setting Up the TRC
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Concepts
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Management/Operations
5
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Methodology/Processes
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VOLUME 2 OF REPORT
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Executive Summary
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Findings
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Reparations
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List of Victims
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VOLUME 3a OF REPORT
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Historical Antecedents
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Governance
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Military/Political History
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Nature of the Conflict
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VOLUME 3b OF REPORT
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Youth
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RECONCILIATION
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National Vision
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The Final Report of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission of Sierra Leone
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Volume 1
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Volume 1: Chapter 1: Mandate of the Commission
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CHAPTER ONE
The Mandate of the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The Legislative Framework
1.
Truth and Reconciliation Commissions had been established in many countries following periods of protracted internal conflict, and were widely believed to provide an important mechanism for transitional justice. Generally, they have been presented as an alternative to judicial prosecution for atrocities, especially in cases where political exigencies made this unlikely or impossible. In the case of Sierra Leone, this was quite explicit. The creation of the Commission was provided for in the Lomé Peace Agreement of 7 July 1999. Article IX of the Lomé Peace Agreement provided a pardon and amnesty for participants in the conflict. The Commission was therefore viewed as the principal means of providing a degree of accountability for human rights abuses committed during the conflict.
2.
It is worthy of note that the Abidjan Peace Agreement of 30 November 1996, which initially offered the hope of an end to the conflict but which did not succeed, for reasons detailed elsewhere in this Report, made no provision for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission or for any similar process. Yet article 14 of the Abidjan Agreement granted an amnesty to members of the Revolutionary United Front, allegedly so as ‘[t]o consolidate the peace and promote the cause of national reconciliation’.
Legal Framework for Mandate
3.
Article VI(2) of the Lomé Peace Agreement described the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as one of several ‘structures for national reconciliation and the consolidation of peace’. Article XXVI of the Lomé Peace Agreement reads as follows:
ARTICLE XXVI
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
1. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission shall be established to address impunity, break the cycle of violence, provide a forum for both the victims and perpetrators of human rights violations to tell their story, get a clear picture of the past in order to facilitate genuine healing and reconciliation.
2. In the spirit of national reconciliation, the Commission shall deal with the question of human rights violations since the beginning of the Sierra Leonean conflict in 1991. This Commission shall, among other things, recommend measures to be taken for the rehabilitation of victims of human rights violations.
3. Membership of the Commission shall be drawn from a cross-section of Sierra Leonean society with the participation and some technical support of the International Community. This Commission shall be established within 90 days after the signing of the present Agreement and shall, not later than 12 months after the commencement of its work, submit its report to the Government for immediate implementation of its recommendations.
4.
The Truth and Reconciliation, 2000 (‘the Act’) was adopted on 22 February 2000. However, it was, strictly speaking, only ‘established’ on 5 July 2002, when the seven Commissioners appointed by the President were formally sworn in during a public ceremony. The word ‘mandate’ is used three times in the Act, in the context of references to ‘fulfilment of the Commission’s mandate’ (sections 8(1)(b) and c), 9(1)), but nowhere is there any attempt to explain or define what the mandate actually consists of. Section 6(1) refers to the ‘object for which the Commission is established’ and section 6(2)c) speaks of ‘fulfilment of the object of the Commission’, suggesting that the expression ‘object’ may be synonymous with ‘mandate’. The Act is associated with an explanatory ‘Memorandum of Object and Reasons’, which was attached to the Bill presented to Parliament. Section 15(2) refers to the need ‘to achieve the object of the Commission’. The Act also contains references to the ‘functions of the Commission’. Part III of the Act, which includes the sections within which the ‘mandate’ and ‘object’ of the Commission are referred to, is entitled ‘Functions of the Commission’.
5.
For the purposes of this discussion, there does not seem to be any useful or meaningful distinction between ‘mandate’, ‘object’ and ‘functions’ of the Commission. It is not possible to glean any significant nuance in Parliamentary intent from the use of these three terms. They are all components of the ‘mandate’ of the Commission.
6.
Section 6 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act 2000 sets out the ‘object’ of the Commission:
6. (1) The object for which the Commission is established is to create an impartial historical record of violations and abuses of human rights and international humanitarian law related to the armed conflict in Sierra Leone, from the beginning of the Conflict in 1991 to the signing of the Lome Peace Agreement; to address impunity, to respond to the needs of the victims, to promote healing and reconciliation and to prevent a repetition of the violations and abuses suffered.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), it shall be the function of the Commission -
(a) to investigate and report on the causes, nature and extent of the violations and abuses referred to in subsection (
