<em>Limitations of Individualistic Peacebuilding in Postwar Sierra Leone</em>

Abstract

This paper focuses on two postwar initiatives in Sierra Leone: the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Rein-tegration (DDR) process and the transitional justice process through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The paper examines both processes and points to some of their limitations. It pays special attention to the problems of defining and identifying “perpetrators” and “victims” and the lack of gender and disability mainstreaming in both the DDR and TRC processes. The paper argues that in order for these processes to be more successful at facilitating peacebuilding in postwar Sierra Leone, a more holistic communal bottom-up policy approach is needed.