Memory, healing and transformation in South Sudan

Farida Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights

Link to full web article here.This is merely the introduction of a much more comprehensive article. Link to PdF document here.

“All post-conflict and divided societies confront the need to establish a delicate balance between forgetting and remembering. It is crucial that memorialization processes do not function as empty rhetoric commemorating the dead, while losing sight of the reasons and the context for past tragedies and obscuring contemporary challenges.”

Introduction

The conflict in South Sudan is approaching its seventh month and there is no end in sight. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, approximately 1.1 million are internally displaced, and more than 400,000 have been forced to flee to neighboring countries. Humanitarian agencies warn that 3.9 million people will face ‘crisis’ or ‘emergency’ levels of food insecurity by August if the fighting continues and if there is no increase of international assistance.

Despite the toll that the conflict is taking on civilian populations, the Government of South Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) have shown little interest in resolving their differences at the negotiating table. Peace talks mediated by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) have resulted in the signing of three agreements—a cessation of hostilities agreement on 23 January, a recommitment to that agreement on 5 May, and a 9 May “agreement to resolve the crisis”—all were violated within days of being signed. Most recently, in June 2014, the SPLM-IO suspended its participation in the talks in protest over the manner in which civil society representatives were selected.

As the parties continue to frustrate efforts to achieve a negotiated solution, the war becomes further entrenched. When and if an agreement is reached, it will take many years to mend the broken lives and relationships that the conflict will leave in its wake. Transitional justice—or the range of judicial and non-judicial processes that states emerging from war or authoritarian rule use to address legacies of massive human rights violations—will be an integral component of these efforts.

This paper is the second in a series of working papers developed by the South Sudan Law Society (SSLS) to stimulate thought on issues of truth, justice and reconciliation in South Sudan’s peace process. The paper explores options for the creation of public memorials to stand as a testament to the shared suffering and resilience of the South Sudanese people.