John Caulker
John Caulker
Human rights activist, John Caulker, has been invited to serve as expert on the advisory committee of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights with its secretariat at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa.
Mr. Caulker, who is executive director for Fambul Tok International, is key player in the transitional justice system of post war Sierra Leone, also accredited for using non-judicial measures and traditional reconciliation approaches to trauma healing, counseling and post war integration.
He is the only West African, of six African experts from the African Union member states, to have been appointed to guide the secretariat in fulfilling its mandate in recent times.
A letter dated 7 September, 2013 and inviting him to become a member of the advisory committee and researcher for the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Transitional Justice in Africa Research Study, said Mr. Caulker was among the experts appointed on merit and proven record of research ability.
“The experts, who have been selected on the strength of a proven research and publication record, will perform a dual research and advisory function. Six additional researchers and a complement of interns will be recruited in an open process in due course to provide research support to the advisory committee,” the letter stated.
Reacting to the appointment Mr. Caulker, who would now oversee the committee’s activities in West Africa, said he was honoured and happy to have been acknowledged by the Commission for believing in and using African solutions to solving African problems.
“We now have the task to produce s series of regional and thematic reports with recommendations to include capacitation and empowering the African Court to be able to deal with such high profile cases of human rights violations and crimes against humanity,” he said.
He said his organization, Fambul Tok International, had just ended phase one of its activities mainly using dialogue to bring post war communities together to ask for forgiveness and reconcile.
“The organization is now set to embark on phase two of its project which would involve economic empowerment of deprived communities through grants and related schemes,” he said and thanked the commission for recognizing their efforts.
Transitional justice is enacted at a point of political transition from violence and repression to societal stability and it is informed by a society’s desire to rebuild social trust, repair a fractured justice system, and build a democratic system of governance.
In post-conflict Sierra Leone, two transitional justice mechanisms ran in parallel, at least for a part of their respective operations. The Special Court for Sierra Leone and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which functioned exclusively within Sierra Leone between 2002 and 2004, producing its Final Report in October 2004.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Commission) passed a resolution on Transitional Justice in Africa during its 53rd Ordinary Session. The resolution called for a study on transitional justice in Africa to be undertaken. The Commission therefore mandated Commissioner Pacifique Manirakiza to undertake the said study with the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) acting as the Secretariat. The provisional deadline for completion of the study would be November 2014.
© Politico 14/11/13
