NAME OF MECHANISM

Truth and Reconciliation Commission

PERIOD OF OPERATION

Expected to be established in 2012 and to run for one year.

RESOURCES

National Consultation on Transitional Justice Mechanisms Report [2010] (In French)

BACKGROUND

In July 2011, Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza announced that a Truth and Reconciliation Commission would be established in 2012, after a delay of several years. He also suggested that a special tribunal would be formed after the commission completed its work [ReliefWeb| 27 Jul 2011]. 

In 2004, the United Nations (UN) sent a team to Burundi to assess the feasibility of undertaking transitional justice mechanisms in the country. Such mechanisms were provided for in the Arusha Peace Accords. The team recommended two mechanisms: a truth commission “to establish the historical facts of the conflict, determine its causes and nature, classify the crimes committed since independence in 1962, and identify those responsible,” and a special chamber within Burundi’s judicial system to “prosecute those bearing the greatest responsibility for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.” The UN Security Council supported these recommendations with Resolution 1606 in 2005.

While the Burundi government agreed to the proposal, it and the UN could not reach agreement on whether amnesty would be granted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes; what the relationship would be between the commission and the tribunal; and what degree of independence the tribunal’s prosecutor should have [BINUB | 2009].

In November 2007, a Tripartite Steering Committee was set up to conduct a national public consultation on transitional justice. The committee, which submitted its report to the UN in December 2010, consisted of Joseph Ndayizeye and Eularie Nibizi for civil society, Festus Ntanyungu and Francoise Ngendahayo for the government and Ismaël A. Diallo for the UN. After consulting 3,887 people, the committee completed its report in April 2010. Those Burundians represented in the consultation voiced a desire for both a truth commission with a mix of local and international commissioners that would investigate the period 1962–2008 (23% percent said they would prefer the period to be up to the present) and a hybrid special tribunal (with the majority preferring Burundian judges), both with broad mandates. Respondents also called for collective, symbolic and individual reparations, in order of priority. The respondents were only asked to rate the mechanisms that had already been proposed for the country, however, and were not asked whether they would prefer another approach and what this could look like.

SOURCES

[BINUB | 2009]
[ReliefWeb| 27 Jul 2011]