South Sudan: Justice Landscape Assessment

his report presents the main findings of a justice landscape assessment that the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) conducted between June and July 2020. In recent years, progress towards the Hybrid Court for South Sudan, as provided for in the September 2018 peace agreement, has stalled. Protracted delays in implementing the peace agreement, ongoing insecurity, and a lack of political will to address crimes committed during the conflict have all contributed to the political impasse over the Hybrid Court. Meanwhile, several fledgling attempts to prosecute conflict-related crimes in military tribunals and national courts have emerged in recent years, suggesting that more could be done to engage existing accountability mechanisms to provide some form of justice and redress to victims. The purpose of the assessment was to provide baseline information on what is being done to address conflict-related crimes at the national and subnational level, and to stimulate thought on how to promote criminal accountability through existing mechanisms as policymakers work towards the establishment of the Hybrid Court.