Gender and transitional justice: Experiences from South Africa, Rwanda and Sierra Leone

Abstract

Africa saw in the 1990s both a model for restorative justice in South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a mechanism for retributive justice in the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. They preceded Sierra Leone’s attempt in 2002 to set up concurrent postconflictsystems – both a truth commission and a special court – to deal with crimes committed during its brutal decade-long civil war. To what extent did Sierra Leone improve on the earlier examples in addressing the issue of gender violations? This chapter discusses how violations of women’s human rights committed during conflict were handled by these earlier forums, and how Sierra Leone learned from and adapted the models to suit its unique situation. It suggests in conclusion that the limited successes of all three countries in dealing with gender violations may set the stage for continuing violence against women in Africa.