Word: sierras
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...undermined by several enduring controversies. Supporters say lasting peace demands justice and point to the arrest and conviction of Sierra Leone's warlords - in a joint U.N.-Sierra Leonean process - which has not restarted that war, as some had feared it would. Sierra Leone "indicates how important it is to have justice if you are going to have peace," the prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone told TIME when the last three militia leaders were convicted last week. But opponents argue that peace often requires amnesty more than it does justice and point to how the 2005 indictment...
...debate about justice and peace: that justice can get in the way of peace, but that lasting peace demands justice? At the outset of the court's work, there were many who argued that by ripping up the amnesties granted to the militias, the court would plunge Sierra Leone back into war. The whole experience of the court indicates how important it is to have justice if you are going to have peace. It has confirmed that. There were those amnesties, granted just days after those leaders had committed some unspeakable atrocities. They did not work. The militias refused...
...different from what happened in Rwanda or Yugoslavia. We are in-country. We are a partnership between the country and the U.N. Except for Taylor, all the trials are being held at the scene of the crime. The judges and the court staff are mixed between international and Sierra Leonean. And we keep people informed of what's going on. Surveys show 90% of the country is aware of what's happening at the court...
...where not only was the opposition not expected to get in, they were allowed to get in. That's pretty positive. What the court has done is reinforce the peace and restore the rule of law to allow events like that to happen. Of course, profound challenges remain. Sierra Leone is one of the world's least developed nations. Infant mortality is the worst in the world. Infrastructure is terrible. And a court can only deliver so much. Some people ask whether the money spent on the court wouldn't be better spent on development...
...There are also some specific lessons from our experience. In many of the situations where you need to bring leaders to account, [you can apply the Sierra Leonean model of] a hybridized court, where you obtain local and international support to bring people to justice and call their bluff. The International Criminal Court is often told, "You are just prosecuting cases in Africa. You are biased against Africa." The answer, I think, is a hybrid model able to deliver the kind of cooperation that an international court sitting outside the region with an exclusively U.N. staff cannot...