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ABSTRACT
The conflict in Sierra Leone was known for the scope and severity of atrocities targeted at civilians, including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) mainly perpetrated against women and girls. Post-conflict initiatives included the establishment of a hybrid criminal tribunal, the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), and a truth and reconciliation commission (TRC). However, neither possessed a mandate for reparations to victims, yet both have made some contribution to tranformation. The judgments and processes of the SCSL have provided a measure of recognition to victims of SGBV. The TRC was required to to pay special attention to the experiences of women and girls in respect of sexual violence and structural inequality. It also interpreted its mandate broadly, in particular to making general recommendations as to the position of women and girls, as well as more specific recommendations as to reparations projects. These recommendations addressed three aspects of gender justice based on Fraser (recognition, representation and redistribution) and offered considerable scope for transformative reparations for victims of SGBV, including through structural, legal and social changes intended to guarantee the non-repetition of sexual violence. However, this article argues that although several of the TRC’s recommendations had transformative potential, much of this potential has not been realised due to the failure of the government to implement those recommendations.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Sarah Williams is a professor, Faculty of Law, UNSW Australia, and associate, Australian Human Rights Centre.
Jasmine Opdam is a research assistant, Faculty of Law, UNSW Australia.
Notes
1 Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Report, Witness to Truth: Final Report (2004) [hereinafter ‘TRC Report’], vol. 3B, chap. 3, ‘Women and the Armed Conflict in Sierra Leone’, para 6.
2 Human Rights Watch, ‘We'll Kill You if You Cry’: Sexual Violence in the Sierra Leone Conflict 15, no. 1(A) (2003): 10; Physicians for Human Rights, War-Related Sexual Violence in Sierra Leone: A Population-based Assessment, June 2002, http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/reports/war-related-sexual-violence-sierra-leone-2002.html (accessed 21 August 2017), 2.
3 Physicians for Human Rights, War-Related Sexual Violence in Sierra Leone: A Population-Based Assessment, June 2002, http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/library/reports/war-related-sexual-violence-sierra-leone-2002.html (accessed 20 July 2017), 25. See also TRC Report, vol. 3B, chap. 3, para. 329.
4 TRC Report, vol. 3B, chap. 3, para. 209.
5 Ibid., para. 146.
6 Government of Sierra Leone, Country Report by Sierra Leone on Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (1995) and the Outcome of the Twenty-Third Special Session of the General Assembly (2000), June 2014, http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/CSW/59/National_reviews/Sierra_Leone_review_Beijing20.pdf (accessed 21 August 2017), 19. The government acknowledged that sexual violence ‘remains a major challenge. One in six women report being raped or sexually assaulted in their lifetime … the actual number of women raped may be much higher’.
7 Ibid., 6. See also Government of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone National Action Plan on GBV (2012–2016), September 2012, http://mswgca.gov.sl//attachments/Documents/NAP%20on%20GBV.pdf (accessed 20 July 2017).
8 See e.g. Ruth Rubio-Marín, ed., The Gender of Reparations: Unsettling Sexual Hierarchies while Redressing Human Rights Violations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011); Andrea Durbach and Louise Chappell, ‘Leaving behind the Age of Impunity: Victims of Gender Violence and the Promise of Reparations’, International Feminist Journal of Politics 16, no. 4 (2014): 543–62; Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Catherine O’Rourke and Aisling Swaine, ‘Transforming Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: Principles and Practice’, University of Minnesota Law School, Legal Studies Research Paper Series No. 15-02 (2015); Kris Brown and Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, ‘Through the Looking Glass: Transitional Justice Futures through the Lens of Nationalism, Feminism and Transformative Change’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 9, no. 1 (2015): 127–49; Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Its Causes and Consequences, UN Doc. A/HRC/14/22 (23 April 2010) [hereinafter Report on Violence against Women].
9 Colleen Duggan and Ruth Jacobson, ‘Reparation of Sexual and Reproductive Violence: Moving from Codification to Implementation’, in The Gender of Reparations: Unsettling Sexual Hierarchies while Redressing Human Rights Violations, ed. Ruth Rubio-Marín (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009): 121–61.
10 Report on Violence against Women, para. 31.
11 Rashida Manjoo, this special issue.
12 Valérie Couillard, ‘The Nairobi Declaration: Redefining Reparation for Women Victims of Sexual Violence’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 1, no. 3 (2007): 444–53.
13 ‘Nairobi Declaration on Women’s and Girls’ Right to a Remedy and Reparation’ (declaration issued at the International Meeting on Women’s and Girls’ Right to a Remedy and Reparation, Nairobi, Kenya, 19–21 March 2007), para. 3.
14 UN Secretary General, Guidance Note of the Secretary-General: Reparations for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, June 2014, http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Press/GuidanceNoteReparationsJune-2014.pdf (accessed 21 August 2017), 8.
15 Durbach and Chappell, ‘Leaving behind the Age of Impunity’.
16 Sarah Williams and Emma Palmer, ‘Transformative Reparations for Women and Girls at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 10 (2016): 311–31.
17 Nancy Fraser, Scales of Justice: Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009).
18 Durbach and Chappell, ‘Leaving behind the Age of Impunity’, 551.
19 See Report on Violence against Women.
20 Fraser explains ‘representation’ as concerning ‘not only who can make claims for redistribution and recognition, but also how such claims are to be mooted and adjudicated’: Fraser, Scales of Justice, 16 (emphasis added); and Durbach and Chappell, ‘Leaving behind the Age of Impunity’.
21 Fraser, Scales of Justice, 16.
22 Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act 2000 [herineafter TRC Act], section 6(2)(b).
23 TRC Report, vol. 3B, chap. 3, para. 11.
24 Agreement Between the United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone on the Establishment of a Special Court for Sierra Leone, 16 January 2002, 2178 U.N.T.S. 138, article 1.
25 Statute of the Special Court of Sierra Leone, appendix of Agreement on the Establishment of a Special Court for Sierra Leone, 145 [hereinafter ‘SCSL Statute’].
26 SCSL Statute, Article 2(g).
27 William A. Schabas, ‘Reparation Practices in Sierra Leone and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’, in Out of the Ashes: Reparation for Victims of Gross and Systematic Human Rights Violations, ed. Koen de Feyter et al. (Cambridge: Intersentia, 2005), 295.
28 Peace Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone (7 July 1999) [hereinafter ‘Lomé Accord’].
29 SCSL Statute, Article 19.
30 Special Court Agreement Ratification Act 2002, Article 45.
31 Lomé Accord, Article IX.
32 Amnesty International, ‘Sierra Leone: Getting Reparations Right for Survivors of Sexual Violence’ (Report AI Index AFR51/005/2007, 1 November 2007), 25.
33 Special Court for Sierra Leone, ‘Best-Practice Recommendations for the Protection and Support of Witnesses: An Evaluation of the Witness and Victims Section’, 2008, cited in Christine Evans, The Right to Reparation in International Law for Victims of Armed Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 114.
34 Renate Winter, ‘The Special Court for Sierra Leone’, in International Criminal Justice: Law and Practice from the Rome Statute to Its Review, ed. Roberto Bellelli (New York: Routledge, 2016), 115.
35 Frédéric Megrét, ‘The International Criminal Court and the Failure to Mention Symbolic Reparations’, International Review of Victimology 16, no. 2 (2009): 127–47.
36 Susana SaCouto, ‘Victim Participation at the International Criminal Court and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: A Feminist Project’, Michigan Journal of Gender and Law 18, no. 2 (2012): 297–359.
37 Williams and Palmer, ‘Transformative Reparations’; John Ciorciari and Anne Heindel, ‘Victim Testimony in International and Hybrid Criminal Courts: Narrative Opportunities, Challenges, and Fair Trial Demands’, Virginia Journal of International Law 56, no. 2 (2017): 265–338.
38 Rebecca Horn, Simon Charters and Saleem Vahidy, ‘The Victim-Witness Experience in the Special Court for Sierra Leone’, International Review of Victimology 15 (2009): 277–98, 287.
39 Ibid.
40 UC Berkeley School of Law, Human Rights Center, The Victims’ Court?, 4, 36, 46.
41 SCSL Statute, Article 2(g).
42 Michelle Staggs Kelsall and Shanee Stepakoff, ‘“When We Wanted to Talk About Rape”: Silencing Sexual Violence at the Special Court for Sierra Leone’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 1 (2007): 355–74, 359.
43 For discussion, see Valerie Oosterveld, ‘The Gender Jurisprudence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone: Progress in the Revolutionary United Front Judgments’, Cornell International Law Journal 44 (2011): 49–74; Valerie Oosterveld, ‘Gender and the Charles Taylor Case at the Special Court for Sierra Leone’, William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law 19 (2012): 7–33.
44 Staggs Kelsall and Stepakoff, ‘When We Wanted to Talk About Rape’, 360.
45 See e.g. Prosecutor v. Sesay, Kallon & Gbao, Case No. SCSL-04-15-T-1234, Trial Chamber I, Trial Judgment (2 March 2009), para. 537–8; Prosecutor v. Brima, Kamara & Kanu, Case No. SCSL-04-16-A-675, Appeals Chamber, Appeal Judgment (22 February 2008), para. 201–03.
46 Prosecutor v. Sesay, Kallon & Gbao, Case No. SCSL-04-15-T-1251, Trial Chamber I, Sentencing Judgment (8 April 2009), para. 133.
47 Ibid., para. 133–4.
48 Ibid., para. 135.
49 Prosecutor v. Taylor, Case No. SCSL-03-01-T-1285, Trial Chamber II, Sentencing Judgment (30 May 2012), para. 70.
50 Prosecutor v Ongwen, ICC-/02/04-01/15, Decision on the confirmation of charges against Dominic Ongwen (23 March 2016).
51 Lomé Accord, Article XXVI.
52 Ibid.
53 TRC Act, section 6(2)(b).
54 TRC Report, vol. 3B, chap. 3, para. 11.
55 See e.g. Andrea Durbach, ‘Towards Reparative Transformation: Revisiting the Impact of Violence against Women in a Post-TRC South Africa’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 10 (2016): 366–87.
56 Lomé Accord, Article XXVIII.
57 Lomé Accord, Article XXIX.
58 Evans, Right to Reparation, 170.
59 Ibid., 171.
60 Amnesty International, ‘Special Court for Sierra Leone: Statement to the National Victims Commemoration Conference Freetown’ (1 and 2 March 2005).
61 Schabas, ‘Reparation Practices in Sierra Leone’, 295.
62 Rosalind Shaw, ‘Memory Frictions: Localizing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Sierra Leone’, International Journal of Transitional Justice 1 (2007): 183–207, 184.
63 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 4, 235.
64 Amnesty International, ‘Sierra Leone: Getting Reparations Right’, 21.
65 TRC Report, vol. 3B, chap. 3, para. 16.
66 Schedule to the TRC Act, subsection 1(a)(v).
67 Yasmin Sooka, ‘Dealing with the Past and Transitional Justice: Building Peace through Accountability’, International Review of the Red Cross 88 (2006): 311–25, 322.
68 TRC Report, vol. 1, chap. 5, para. 8–10.
69 TRC Report, vol. 3, 89–92.
70 TRC Report, vol. 3B, chap. 3, para. 24–5.
71 Ibid., para. 26, 28.
72 TRC Act, section 7(4).
73 e.g. Durbach, ‘Towards Reparative Transformation’; and Beth Goldblatt, ‘Evaluating the Gender Content of Reparations: Lessons from South Africa’, in What Happened to the Women? Gender and Reparations for Human Rights Violations, ed. Ruth Rubio-Marín (New York: Social Science Research Council, 2006).
74 Evans, Right to Reparation, 171.
75 TRC Report, vol. 3B, chap. 3, para. 27.
76 TRC Act, section 7(4).
77 TRC Report, vol. 3B, chap. 3, para. 19.
78 Ibid., para. 20.
79 Durbach, ‘Towards Reparative Transformation’, 366–87.
80 Andrea Durbach and Lucy Geddes, this special issue.
81 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 3, para. 15.
82 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 4, para. 335.
83 Evans, Right to Reparation, 177.
84 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 4, para. 71.
85 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 3, para. 321.
86 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 3, para. 317.
87 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 3, 169–70; chap. 4, para. 140–44.
88 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 4, para. 11.
89 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 3, para. 325–6; chap. 4, para. 489, 517.
90 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 3, 120.
91 TRC Act, section 17.
92 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 3, 118.
93 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 4, para. 101.
94 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 4, para. 82.
95 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 4, para. 227.
96 Evans, Right to Reparation, 180.
97 TRC Report, vol. 2, chap. 4, para. 235.
98 Evans, Right to Reparation, 172, 176.
99 Nina Devries, ‘Ebola Drives Increase in Sexual Violence in Sierra Leone, Experts Say’, Al Jazeera, 20 February 2015, http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/2/20/sex-assault-on-the-rise-in-sierra-leone.html (accessed 20 July 2017).
100 Sheik Alie Y. Kallay, ‘Ebola and Gender Violence in Sierra Leone’, Awareness Times: Sierra Leone News, 16 March 2015, http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200527323.shtml (accessed 20 July 2017).
101 IRIN News, ‘Sex Crimes up amid Ebola Outbreak in Sierra Leone’, Kenema, 4 February 2015, http://www.irinnews.org/feature/2015/02/04 (accessed 20 July 2017).
102 Lomé Accord, Article XXV.
103 Schabas, ‘Reparation Practices in Sierra Leone’, 307.
104 Amnesty International, ‘Sierra Leone’s Victims Should not Be Forgotten Simply Because They Have not Been Heard’, Public Statement, AFR 51/001/2007, 26 March 2007.
105 OHCHR, Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Sierra Leone to the Human Rights Council for 2008 (UN Doc. A/HRC/10/52), para. 38.
106 Mohamed Suma and Cristian Correa, International Center for Transitional Justice, Report and Proposals for the Implementation of Reparations in Sierra Leone (2009), 14, https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-SierraLeone-Reparations-Report-2009-English.pdf (accessed 20 July 2017) [hereinafter ‘ICTJ 2009 Reparations Report’].
107 Ibid., 3.
108 Ibid., 4.
109 Ibid., 5.
110 Ibid.
111 International Center for Transitional Justice, ‘Sierra Leone: Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council, 11th session: May 2011’, 1 November 2010, para. 12, https://www.ictj.org/sites/default/files/ICTJ-SierraLeone-Periodic-Review-2010-English.pdf (accessed 20 July 2017).
112 ‘President Koroma’s Call for Contributions to Special Fund for War Victims’, 13 November 2009, http://www.carl-sl.org/home/reports/362-presidents-call-for-contributions-to-special-fund-for-war-victims (accessed 20 July 2017).
113 Lomé Accord, Article XXIX.
114 OHCHR, Report on Assistance to Sierra Leone in the Field of Human Rights in Sierra Leone to the Human Rights Council for 2010, para. 49, cited in Evans, Right to Reparation, 183.
115 Amnesty International, ‘Getting Reparations Right’, 26.
116 Agencia Catalana de Cooperacio al Desenvolupament, ‘Disarmament in Sierra Leone’, http://escolapau.uab.cat/img/programas/desarme/mapa/sierrai.pdf (accessed 20 July 2017).
117 The US$8.5 million comprised: $3 million from the UN Peace Building Fund (plus two interim relief payments of $450,000 and $1.1 million), $246,000 from the Government of Sierra Leone (in personnel and office buildings), $1 million from UNIFEM, $50,000 from the Special Fund, and $2.5 million from the UN Multi-Donor Trust Fund. See Eva Ottendorfer, The Fortunate Ones and the Ones Still Waiting: Reparations for War Victims in Sierra Leone (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, 2014), http://www.hsfk.de/fileadmin/HSFK/hsfk_downloads/prif129.pdf (accessed 20 July 2017).
118 ICTJ 2009 Reparations Report, 33.
119 Amnesty International, ‘Sierra Leone’s Victims Should not Be Forgotten’.
120 Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, ‘Peace Museum’, http://www.sierraleonetrc.org/index.php/sierra-leone-peace-museum (accessed 20 July 2017).
121 ‘Sexual violence defies new law’, IRIN News, 30 July 2009, http://www.irinnews.org/report/85511/sierra-leone-sexual-violence-defies-new-law (accessed 20 July, 2017).
122 The Devolution of Estates Act 2007, section 3(2).
123 The Registration of Customary Marriage and Divorce Act 2007, section 2(2).
124 Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law, ‘Registration of Customary and Divorce Act and Early/Forced Marriage: Its implications on our girls and society’(20 July, 2012), http://www.carl-sl.org/home/reports/570-registration-of-customary-and-divorce-act-and-earlyforced-marriage-its-implications-on-our-girls-and-society (accessed 20 July, 2017).
125 ‘Sex crimes up amid Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone’, IRIN News, 4 February 2015, http://www.irinnews.org/feature/2015/02/04 (accessed 20 July, 2017).
126 ‘Fighting gender-based violence in Sierra Leone’, IRIN News, 6 November 2013, http://www.irinnews.org/report/99070/fighting-gender-based-violence-sierra-leone (accessed 20 July, 2017).
127 Devries, ‘Ebola drives increase in sexual violence in Sierra Leone, experts say’.
128 ’Fighting gender-based violence in Sierra Leone’.
129 Ibid.
130 Ibid.
131 ‘Sex crimes up amid Ebola outbreak’.
132 Sierra Leone National Action Plan for GBV (2012-2016).
133 Theresa M. Clark, ‘Assessing the Special Court’s Contribution to Achieving Transitional Justice’ in The Sierra Leone Special Court and its Legacy: The Impact for Africa and International Criminal Law, ed. Charles Jalloh (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 765.
134 Ibid.
135 Ottendorfer, The Fortunate Ones.