Southern African edition of the stakeholder engagement on governance, democracy, and human rights in Africa, Cape Town 6 October 2022 Prof. Cheryl Hendricks Distinguished Guests, Representatives of the African Union, Representatives of the Data for Governance Alliance, Representatives of Civil Society, Colleagues, good afternoon. Apologies that I have not been able to be here with you [...]
INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION (IJR) PAN-AFRICAN RECONCILIATION NETWORK (PAREN) AFRICAN UNION TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE MONITOR (AUTJP MONITOR) Call for Articles 1.Background and Context: The African Union Transitional Justice Policy (AUTJP), adopted in February 2019, emphasises the important role played by non-state actors and civil society organisations as key partners with government and inter-governmental actors, in the [...]
Cape Town, Friday 23 July 2021 The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) sends its message of solidarity and support to the South African Women’s Peace Table convened by the Getrude Shope Women Mediators Network. IJR remains available to work collaboratively with associations, organisations and partners to mobilize and build our collective capacity to dialogue and [...]
The crises around our continent do not seem to have decreased after the initial promise of the range of policy frameworks that we have adopted as an African continent. Most recently, the crisis in Tigray region in northern Ethiopia, which pits the government against a resurgent Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLP), has led to more than 40,000 refugees fleeing into the neighbouring Sudan, and untold casualties of war.
Over the course of 2020, the preservation of economic security took centre stage as businesses and people were hard hit by a series of lockdowns intended to slow the spread of Covid-19. Sadly, economic insecurity increased as those forced to the margins constituted an ever-growing portion of our society.
The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation is committed to the building of fair, democratic and inclusive societies. Due to its roots in South Africa’s transition of the early 1990s, the organisation has over the past two decades concentrated its pursuit of this vision on post-conflict societies in the midst of transitional justice processes across Africa. In recent years it has increasingly been called upon to share this experience in similar contexts further abroad.
US Election: Why did the polls get it wrong – again? The biggest loser of the US election was neither the Democratic Party nor Republican Party, it was the polling industry. Pre-election polls once again predicted a comfortable win for the Democratic nominee Joe Biden, but the contest is proving to be much closer than experts [...]
The IJR staff wishes its Patron, Archbishop Desmond Tutu who has been admitted to hospital this week, strength and a speedy recovery. Our thoughts are with the Tutu family.
Early this morning my phone beeps. The message is from my friend Rose in Juba, South Sudan. She is a devoted women’s rights activist.With the few resources at her disposal, she works day in, day out to contribute to building a better South Sudan for her children. Rose’s message reads: “My friend, now that you are dealing with mental health: there is too much suicide and mental problem in South Sudan that a real intervention is needed. How? What needs to be our plan?” I gulp. I can sense the urgency.
Around South Africa there are many statues of struggle heroes and museums that contribute to commemorating a part of our divided history. Some would say that we do not need such depictions of our past, others say it is part of remembrance and collective memory is important to truth and justice. Memorialisation, put another way, is [...]
