This brief assesses options for the framing of the mandate of South Sudan’s Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing (CTRH), with a particular focus on the temporal scope of the CTRH’s inquiries. The brief is structured in four sections. The first section summarizes the provisions on the CTRH in the August 2015 Agreement for the Resolution of the Crisis in South Sudan (ARCISS). The second section examines issues relating to the substantive and temporal scope of the CTRH mandate. The third section emphasizes the need for a consultative process to inform the public about the CTRH and to support a citizen-owned and driven truth-seeking process. The final section provides concluding remarks and a series of recommendations to inform the design and establishment of the CTRH.

This policy brief is part of two new publications from the research project “Intersections of Truth, Justice and Reconciliation in South Sudan”, carried out in cooperation by the University for Peace (UPEACE) Centre The Hague, the South Sudan Law Society (SSLS) and PAX. Please consult this link for the policy brief “Observations on the Mandate of South Sudan’s Commission on Truth, Reconciliation and Healing (CTRH)”.