Making Peace with Children: Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report for the Children of Sierra Leone

Helen Bond ()
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Helen Bond: Howard University

A chapter in Peace Studies for Sustainable Development in Africa, 2022, pp 419-432 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Truth and Reconciliation Commissions look to the past to envision a better future. After years (1991–2002) of brutal conflict in Sierra Leone, there existed a need to confront a war that was characterized by widespread atrocities. The nation wanted to know what precipitated the war, but also how did it engulf its most precious resource, children, and youth?. At the start of the conflict, Sierra Leone was a nation of the young, with nearly half of its population composed of children and young adults. How can their energy and aspirations help the nation chart a new way forward? These questions gave birth to this chapter and to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report for the Children of Sierra Leone. No truth commission in the past had ever produced such a report making it a relatively new and understudied phenomenon. Children are increasingly becoming a focus of truth commissions as societies with large youth populations seek more sustainable solutions to peace and development. This chapter describes how the child-friendly version of Sierra Leone’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report came about and how it gave special attention to the experiences of children and youth within the armed conflict. The second section examined how large marginalized youth populations can become key participants in the peace and reconciliation process. The third section examines how centering the needs and aspirations of young people are critical to societies with youth majorities.

Keywords: Sierra Leone; Truth and Reconciliation Commissions; Youth bulge; Children (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:aaechp:978-3-030-92474-4_34

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-92474-4_34

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