Center for Justice and Peace
Institute for Justice and Peace (under establishment)
The center will primarily engage the Justice and Peace Commission at the National level, in the dioceses the diocesan Justice and Peace Coordinators, employees and volunteers. We will also admit any other civil society organization which need strengthening the capacity on conflict transformation. It will be a center for training those who will serve the Justice and Peace Commissions and various civil society organizations who will apply. They Center will develop to target as well the civil servants. The Civil Servants: The current conflict demonstrated that South Sudan needs institutions that promote peaceful coexistence in the places of work. Evidence of colleagues fighting and targeting each during in the current conflict taught us the lesson that we need to build better relations among our civil servants, of harmony and reconciliation. Justice and Peace will invite civil servants to apply to Justice and Peace Institute and carry out conflict analysis and foundations of strong and cohesive institutions.
The primary focus of the institute is building the capacity of the grassroots organizations, starting with the Justice and Peace Commissions and other CSOs at that level. The Institute will start as a three months program by training the Justice and Peace Officers. This is a pilot, once it is successful then, it will be launched. It will also be combined with the Historical Memories Project to form the Justice and Peace Institute.
The University through the Institute of Applied Research and Community Outreach (IARCO) organized public lecture series under the title: Restoring South Sudan: Discussions on Reconciliation, Justice and Healing. The following topics were deeply discussed in the lectures series: initiative to organize this lecture series follows the recent launch of Bishop Barani Eduardo Hiiboro’s book “Reconciliation, Healing and Peace in South Sudan. Reflections on the Way Forward”, and further explores some of the main themes that are addressed in the book: peace mediation and settlement; reconciliation as a collective responsibility; justice and accountability; trauma and healing. These themes are highly interconnected and are separated in this lecture series for the purpose of a deeper exploration of both historical and contemporary experiences with, perceptions on and approaches to these issues.
The lecture series brought together academicians, civil society, religious leaders and politicians. It provided an open and constructive platform for a wide generational, gender and ethnic spectrum of South Sudan society. Each of the lectures consist will exist of a main presentation and invites various discussants to present and debate original and analytical ideas and viewpoints. In the first lecture critically analysed the peace mediation and settlement process overseen by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and place the negotiations in a wider socio-historical context. Matters of inclusivity of other stakeholders beyond the principal parties to the conflict, collective ownership and sustainability were raised and debated.
In the second lecture explored reconciliation as a collective responsibility. It discussed stopping the cycles of violence, reconciliation in an environment of deprivation, prejudice, mutual distrust and attaining moral reparation. Third Lectures concept of Justice was debated in the context of death and destruction, displacements, sexual violence and mass human rights violations and asks what different understandings of justice exist in South Sudan. Restorative justice in the context of multi-ethnic realities in South Sudan In the fourth lecture Trauma, Vulnerability and healing was deeply discussed with the participation of the Morning Star Team from USAID.
In the fifth lecture a facilitator engaged the different speakers and audiences in dialogue on the more practical steps that followed from the lecture series.