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 [...]

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 [...]

The National Planning Commission (NPC) noted this particular issue with regards to policing in South Africa in their 2011 report: "The decision to demilitarize the police force, moving away from its history of brutality, was a goal of transformation after 1994. The remilitarization of the police in recent years has not garnered greater community respect for police officers, [...]

Almost a quarter century into South Africa's political transition, most of its citizens continue to wait for its economic equivalent to transpire. Still poverty frames the daily struggles of far too many, while inequality sustains inherited asymmetric power relations that impede access to those resources that are essential to move ahead in life. In short, injustice still reproduces itself

2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the conclusion of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SATRC). The South African example seemed the perfect means for post-conflict societies to hold peoples and crimes accountable as a moral reckoning in building a new nation.