Khartoum, Mar. 15 (SUNA) - The National Justice and Transitional Justice Conference, organized by the Higher Committee for Justice and Transitional Justice, consists of Civil Alliance for Transitional Justice, national experts, the signatories of the framework agreement) in cooperation with the Tripartite Mechanism (United Nations, African Union and IGAD), will kick off today at 6:00 pm.
The spokesman for the political process Engineer Khaled Omar Youssef, who announced the launching of the conference today indicated that the regional workshops have been organized since the 11th of of the current month and until yesterday last Tuesday, issued its recommendations on the justice and transitional justice, except the cities of Kassala and Atbara which their representatives will participate in the national conference today.
Engineer Khaled Omar noted that the regional workshops led a serious discussions and fruitful dialogues through papers presented by the participants with full transparency and responsibility, and issued recommendations that will be discussed in the national conference to kickoff today’s evening.
He indicated that workshops were attended by representitives of the stakeholders , the war victims, victims of torture, families of martyrs, families of the wounded, families of the missing, resistance committees, civil society organizations, political forces, law profisionals, arbitrarily dismissed persons, community entities, demand groups, And academics and intellectuals, farmers and pastoralists, while the victims and their families were represented by more than 80%, with more than 40% percentage of women, and a large number of young men and women from the states.
He stated that the workshops discussed several axes and papers in general sessions and work groups, on which it issued recommendations emphasizing a strict adherence to the goals of transitional justice to bring end to the culture of impunity and the rule of law, stopping human rights violations, building trust between societies and the state, restoring dignity to victims and their families, reparation and the reform of the state’s institutions, the justice institutions, the security and military institutions, in addition to gthe adherence to the transitional justice standards stemming from international human rights law and relevant laws and agreements, and developing and issuing a transitional justice law in accordance with broad consultations with stakeholders.
The workshops discussed several axes and papers in plenary sessions and working groups, and issued recommendations that emphasized strict adherence to the goals of transitional justice represented in ending the culture of impunity and the rule of law, stopping human rights violations, building trust between societies and the state, restoring dignity to victims and their families, reparation and reform. State institutions, justice agencies, security and military agencies, in addition to adhering to transitional justice standards stemming from international human rights law and relevant laws and agreements, and developing and issuing a transitional justice law in accordance with broad consultations with stakeholders.
He said that the workshops’ recommendations asserted that the democratic transformation, political stability, and the rule of law require the availability of political will, societal acceptance, legislative and judicial measures, and an active role for civil society to turnover the past pages by holding human rights violators accountable by the establishment of measures to achieve justice, accountability, fairness, revealing the truth, reparation for harm, and creating an atmosphere for not repeating those crimes in the future.
He noted that the workshops’ recommendations affirmed the necessity of forming a civil, democratic government committed to the objectives of the glorious December revolution, and having a clear political will and strategy to implement justice and transitional justice, and is committed to caring for the families of the martyrs, treating the wounded and the injured, lifting injustice and compensating the harm that occurred to the victims of inhuman crimes, and the immediate cessation of all forms of violations to which the Sudanese women are exposed by establishing the Women’s Commission, defining its relationship with the Transitional Justice Commission.
The spokesman for the political process Engineer Khaled Omar Youssef, pointed out that the recommendations called for strengthening the role of civil society and human rights organizations in particular for monitoring violations, raising societal awareness of justice and transitional justice, addressing the consequences of widespread violations of the past thirty years, encouraging the achievement of justice and reconciliation, establishing a culture of peace, and providing assistance to the coming transitional government on the transitional justice policies, approchement and mechanisms, adopt effective advocacy strategies for transitional justice issues, cancel arbitrary dismissal decisions and address the situtions of the dismissed persons to equal their their colleagues in the civil service in an equitable manner, and the removal of all forms of empowerment that prevent the perpetrators from reaching justice And the establishment of an independent Transitional Justice Commission in the context of democratic transition with broad powers that operate with complete independence and in isolation from state institutions, with including its membership measures in accordance with the Transitional Justice Law, and adopt a Sudanese model stemming from a common vision of victims, civil society and political actors, with the legal definition to the forms and the levels of transitional justice, including special courts, customary justice, and other means of justice, including international criminal justice.
The workshops recommendations demanded the need to develop and promulgate a transitional justice law with the participation of all stakeholders, stressing on continuity and integral of the transitional justice processes which includes trials of criminals, compensation and rehabilitation for victims, restructuring of justice institutions, legal, security and military reform, and non-impunity in accordance with the initiatives of “national and international” prosecutions, and more transparency in all the transitional justice processes.
Engineer Khaled Omar noted that the regional workshops’ recommendations called on the regional and international community to cooperate with the Sudanese people by the transfer of experiences, capabilities, and technical support in the fields of transitional justice, with the necessity for strengthening partnership with regional and international institutions to help uncover the truth and transfer lessons learned from similar experiences, to consolidate dialogue between components of civil society and victims and their families through the establishment of mechanisms and activities that ensure transparency, participation and civil education on transitional justice issues, in addition to urge the concerned authorities to make these recommendations part of the final agreement, the transitional constitution and the transitional government program, with the active participation of all components of the local community and stakeholders.
He stressed that the recommendations asserted the need for finding answers for the transitional justice questions on reparations for harm to lives and property, war crimes and crimes against humanity, the role of youth in transitional justice issues, issues of displacement and the effects of war, issues of nomads and farmers, in addition to the question of institutional reform of the transitional justice issues.
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