Howard Varney is the Senior Programme Adviser at the International Centre for Transitional Justice. In this interview, he discusses the legacy of the Special Court for Sierra Leone and its impact on the domestic legal system. Howard talks about how special courts and truth commissions can and should work in harmony side by side. He shares his thoughts on the amnesty that was agreed to in the Lomé peace accord, and how the amnesty helped to secure peace in 1999. Howard Varney also discusses how Sierra Leoneans have taken the report of the Truth Commission very seriously and put in place measures to build a new society in which the horrors and violence of the past will become unthinkable.
The Wayamo Foundation and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Rule of Law Programme for Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa have launched an online resource platform on the fight against impunity in West Africa called “Justice in West Africa”: https://justiceafriqueouest.wayamo.com. As part of this project, experts from West Africa were interviewed on debates relating to current and past efforts in the prosecution of international crimes in the region.
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La Fondation Wayamo et le Programme pour la Promotion de l’Etat de droit de la Fondation Konrad Adenauer ont lancé une plateforme de ressources en ligne sur la lutte contre l’impunité en Afrique de l’Ouest intitulée « Justice en Afrique de l’Ouest pour les crimes internationaux » : https://justiceafriqueouest.wayamo.com. Dans le cadre de ce projet, des experts d’Afrique de l’Ouest ont été interviewés sur les débats relatifs aux efforts actuels et passés, dans le domaine de la poursuite des crimes internationaux dans la région.
