Abstract: Since the end of World War II, the international community has had to set up international criminal tribunals to address post conflict justice demands. After the Sierra Leonean civil war, in 2002, the United Nations in agreement with the government of Sierra Leone set up the Special Court for Sierra Leon to try people who were alleged to have committed atrocities and abuses during the war. The study explored the nexus between the stability enjoyed by the country and the activities of the court. The study adopted a survey research design. Using a population made up of the people in Sierra Leone, the study adopted the multi stage sampling technique to arrive at the four towns in Sierra Leone selected for study. The study found that 72% of the respondents and all interview stated that the activities of the court had restrained people from starting another war and only 36% of the respondents agreed that the victims have forgiven their abusers. The study concluded that even though the activities of the Special Court acted as a deterrence to further hostilities in the country, the court did not substantially contribute to the country’s post conflict stability to the extent that it did not achieve reconciliation of the victims with their abusers. The study recommends that future international criminal tribunals criminal tribunals should pursue reconciliation of victims and abusers as a matter of deliberate mandate rather than retributive mandate through trials.
Keywords: International criminal tribunals, Post conflict stability, Reconciliation, Special court for Sierra Leone, Transitional justice.
Title: THE EFFETIVENESS OF THE SPECIAL COURT FOR SIERRA LEONE AS A TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE MECHANISM FOR POST CONFLICT STABILITY
Author: Yinka Olomojobi, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, Bolaji Alabi
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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