A/HRC/45/CRP.4 6. Chapter V of the R-ARCSS outlines the mandate of the transitional justice mechanisms as follows: i. A Commission for Truth, Reconciliation, and Healing (CTRH) to investigate and establish an accurate and impartial record of human rights violations, breaches of the rule of law, and excessive abuses of power committed by State and non-State actors, and the circumstances and causes of the conflict in South Sudan between July 2005, when the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed between northern and southern Sudan, and 12 September 2018, when the R-ARCSS was signed. The CTRH is expected to identify perpetrators responsible for the violations, and propose measures to provide effective remedies, including reparation, to affected victims and to prevent recurrence of similar violations. 4 ii. A Hybrid Court for South Sudan (HCSS) to investigate and prosecute individuals responsible for violations of international law and/or applicable South Sudanese law, committed from 15 December 2013 to the end of the transitional period anticipated in the R-ARCSS. The HCSS’s mandate will include atrocity crimes including genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, as well as other crimes under the law of South Sudan.5 iii. A Compensation and Reparation Authority (CRA) that will administer a fund to “provide material and financial support to citizens whose property was destroyed by the conflict and help them to rebuild their livelihoods.” The CRA will also receive applications from victims recorded by the CTRH and provide them with appropriate compensation and reparation. 6 7. The R-ARCSS anticipates that the CTRH, HCSS, and CRA/fund will be implemented in a mutually reinforcing manner to “promote the common objective of facilitating truth, reconciliation and healing, [and] compensation and reparation for gross human rights violations in South Sudan.”7 8. Furthermore, national healing and reconciliation processes, humanitarian and reconstruction efforts, and reform measures expected to be initiated pursuant to the RARCSS provide additional avenues for acknowledgement of victims as rights-holders, redress for harms they have suffered, and prevention of future violations. 9. Thus, transitional justice mechanisms in Chapter V of the peace agreement are an integral part of a package of measures intended to achieve political, security, and economic reforms for delivering societal transformation, and addressing the structural drivers of a conflict which continues to manifest in ethnic dimensions and patterns of extreme violence, including systematic sexual attacks on women on a wide scale. In a context where exclusionary politics and lack of political and economic accountability have combined with impunity for past and on-going violations, the grievances remain unanswered, fuelling the next cycles of grievance and greed-related violence. In contexts such as South Sudan, transitional justice measures serve not only as redress for past violations but as critical interventions for preventing the next mass atrocity. In this broad conception, transitional justice is thus an indispensable pillar for the recovery of South Sudan from conflict and its transformation into a stable society. Current Situation in South Sudan 10. More than two years since the signing of the R-ARCSS, there has been no concrete progress toward the realisation of transitional justice, accountability, national healing, and reconciliation in South Sudan. Persistent political contestation between parties to the peace agreement has resulted in significant delays in implementation of key measures, including reconstitution of the Transitional National Legislative Assembly, which is obligated to enact the necessary legislation for establishment of the HCSS, CTRH, and CRA. 11. Consequently, the failure to address underlying causes of the 2013 conflict, including ethnic-based divisions and impunity for past human rights violations and crimes, has created a conducive environment for renewed violence. The Commission has documented a spiralling pattern of systematic, ethnic-based communal violence perpetrated through armed 4 See R-ARCSS, Article 5.2. See R-ARCSS, Article 5.3. 6 See R-ARCSS, Article 5.4. 7 R-ARCSS, Article 5.1.3. 5 4