The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation has launched a series of surveys of Sudanese and Congolese war-affected communities on their reparative justice priorities and strategies in the Horn of Africa and Eastern Africa. The project will engage communities in affected areas to identify their needs in terms of implementing reparative justice processes, which are necessary to prevent the recurring cycles of violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Sudan.

The objective of this project is to engage the communities exiled from the DRC and Sudan to identify their needs in terms of implementing reparative justice processes, during the peacemaking and peacebuilding processes, which are necessary to prevent the recurring cycles of violence in both countries.

This initiative is being undertaken in recognition of the fact that while a security approach is necessary, it is not sufficient for the gradual stabilisation of war-affected regions across the continent. In particular, the experience and evidence garnered from interventions in the DRC continue to demonstrate that redressing historical grievances and promoting reparative justice processes are often considered only as an afterthought, as far as UN peace operations are concerned. This short-sighted approach to peace operations ultimately makes it much more difficult for missions to transition out of the countries in which they are embedded. The challenging work of winning the hearts and minds of local populations, through the transformation of societies, is equally important as a vital complement to security initiatives in these war-affected regions.

The cyclical nature of conflict points to the critical need to move beyond temporary stalemates and ceasefire agreements, peacekeeping deployments and military operations, which are so common in this era, towards a regional reparative justice policy that is informed by confronting underlying grievances that have fuelled decades of animosity and violence on the continent. It is for this reason that the IJR project seeks regional solutions, beyond inward-looking state-centric solutions, to problems that require a more expansive transboundary perspective.

The project is also being implemented on the recognition though the link between peacemaking and peacebuilding through reparative justice is self-evident at the conceptual level, it does not translate into concrete complementarity on the ground. Implementing effective reparative justice processes is therefore a necessary prerequisite to any exit strategy for a military intervention.

In the case of the DRC and Sudan, the absence of well-grounded reparative justice interventions, and well thought-out, high-level political engagement, has meant that the phenomenon of shifting alliances among armed militia continues unabated. If the

underlying societal drivers of conflict in a particular country or region are not addressed through high-level processes of political dialogue – backed by communal reparative justice interventions – then violence will remain a feature of these societies.

This intervention will hence engage communities exiled from both countries to identify their needs in terms of implementing reparative justice processes, which are necessary to prevent the recurring cycles of violence in the future.

The project will conduct community-based surveys and convene a focus group discussion on Integrating Reparative Justice into the Peacemaking and Peacebuilding Process, by engaging with the communities from Sudan and the DRC. The data generated from these interventions will be utilised to engage national, regional, continental and global actors involved in the peacemaking and peacebuilding processes.

In addition, the project will further work with participants drawn from the focus groups to support the strengthening of the countries’ networks on reparative justice, who can engage their communities nation-wide on the issue of reparative justice. This intervention’s data will contribute towards addressing unresolved historical grievances through reparative justice which is necessary to reduce the perpetuation of the logic of war and power politics in the DRC and Sudan.

Importantly, the project will generate critical insights to inform engagement with decision-makers and help transform perceptions on the necessity of reparative justice as a vital mechanism for preventing the recurrence of violence across other parts of Africa.