Parliamentary Seminar on Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding
14 May 2008
Committee Room No. 1
Parliament
Building
Freetown,
Sierra Leone
The
International
Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
and the Sierra Leone Court Monitoring Programme (SLCMP) and the Human Rights
Committee in Parliament will jointly convene a parliamentary seminar on
transitional justice and peacebuilding on 14 May 2008 in the
Parliament
Building
in
Freetown,
Sierra Leone.
Background:
Sierra Leone was one of the first
countries on the agenda of the UN Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), an
inter-governmental body of the UN which aims to improve the international
community’s support for countries coming out of conflict. In December 2007, the
United Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone adopted the Sierra Leone
Peacebuilding Cooperation Framework (“Framework”). The Framework identifies four
priority peacebuilding areas: Youth Employment and Empowerment, Justice and
Security Sector Reform, Consolidation of democracy and good governance,
Capacity building, and the Energy sector. In coordination with the PBC, the UN
Peacebuilding Fund committed $35 million to support activities in these priority
areas. In June 2008, the PBC and the Government of Sierra Leone will undertake
the first annual review of progress towards the implementation of the
Framework.
Description of seminar: This
meeting will not only be a sensitization on the PBC, but will address
substantive issues through the framework of transitional justice in the
cooperation framework. The goal is to provide the Parliament with an
opportunity to better understand the process and to integrate the compact in
their work. Topics to be discussed will include the peacebuilding
priorities identified by the Framework, the commitments made by the Government
of Sierra Leone and the member countries of the PBC, and the potential role of
parliament in terms of legislation, monitoring and evaluation.
