Rights groups call on UN to move on TRC

Three rights groups on Friday urged the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to resume preparations for the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in Sierra Leone, ARTICLE 19 reported. The groups are ARTICLE 19, the Global Campaign for Free Expression, and the Sierra Leone Working Group on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The TRC preparatory phase was suspended when the Lome Peace agreement between Sierra Leone’s government and Revolutionary United Front (RUF) virtually collapsed in early May. The Working Group carried out consultations over the past month to find out people’s attitudes to crucial issues of truth and justice following the agreement’s virtual collapse, according to Article 19. It quoted the Working Group’s chair, John Caulker, as saying on Friday: “We found a strong consensus that key rebel leaders should face some kind of special criminal court operating under international law, but that there is still a real need for the TRC.”