A working group on Ethiopia’s transitional justice policy has stressed the need to proactively engage multi-stakeholders to transform the cyclic violence and political culture of the country into a peaceful future.
The expert group has developed a transitional justice policy document and conducted numerous consultative workshops that contribute to sustainable peace, reconciliation, and justice.
Transitional Justice Working Group member Mareshet Tadesse told the ENA the ongoing transitional justice policy and its implementation requires many actors and stakeholders.
For him, those key stakeholders can determine the success or the failure of the transitional justice policy.
“This (transitional justice) really needs the actual, active and meaningful participation of all stakeholders.
The media, civil society and political parties, affected communities and perpetrators have to play their share. Otherwise, we can’t talk about transforming cyclic violence and injustice into a peaceful future.”
According to him, the transitional justice working group enjoys independence and some level of distance from the government political structure.
The working group has prepared a “green paper” that has been released for public consultations and inputs, he revealed.
Since February 2023, the working group has conducted about five consultations with key governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, it was learned.
The consultative workshops were conducted with the media, civil societies, political parties and experts as well as actors in the past transitional justice initiatives in Ethiopia.
Those included commissioners of the former Reconciliation Commission, and Boundary and Identity Commission, justice prosecutors, and investigators, among others.
Over 60 areas have been identified for the conduct of consultations with victims, communities affected by conflict, religious leaders, community leaders, media, influencers and segments of the society, he revealed.
Mareshet further stated that transitional justice mechanisms have become integral parts of efforts to transition from conflict and autocratic political order characterized by violence, division and repression to a peaceful and democratic order.
In many societies that have tried to adopt and implement transitional justice policy, these have been partly achieved by comprehensively addressing their past and moving forward.
With these ample experiences, the expert said that all actors and stakeholders have to play multi-faceted roles and fulfill what is expected from them in the implementation of the country's transitional justice policy.
“It cannot be done by a few selected stakeholders,” the expert underscored, adding that “inclusiveness is a very important process and everyone has to play their fundamental and crucial role. If we do that, I believe Ethiopia’s unaddressed and unprocessed past is not very much complicated when compared with some other countries.”
Source: Ethiopian News Agency