New York, January 26, 2026—South Sudanese refugees and internally displaced persons currently comprise 40 percent of the East African country’s total population. Yet, these groups have been largely excluded from ongoing policy discussions related to the implementation of the 2018 Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan, which mandates the creation of a national transitional justice process.
Today, ICTJ is releasing a new report that aims to amplify the perspectives, expectations, and needs of South Sudanese displaced persons and ensure they are included in the design and carrying out of any transitional justice process. The report, “‘Thoughts on Our Beloved Country’: A Call for Inclusion of Displaced Persons in South Sudan’s Transitional Justice Process,” is based on focus group discussions with some 500 displaced South Sudanese in Kenya, Uganda, and South Sudan.
While the revitalized peace agreement provides for critical justice mechanisms, including the Commission for Truth, Reconciliation and Healing (CTRH), the Hybrid Court for South Sudan, and the Compensation and Reparation Authority (CRA), the study found that many South Sudanese displaced persons have little information regarding these processes that will likely shape their future. Moreover, the study revealed that those living in displacement camp feel a profound sense of abandonment and exclusion.
“Displaced persons have the right, capacity, and agency to participate in their country’s peace process from the onset,” says Agatha Ndonga, ICTJ’s head of program for South Sudan and the report’s author. “There must therefore be an active effort to reach out to displaced communities and engage them—to break cycles of conflict and to promote reconciliation between the state and these communities and among communities themselves.”
In 2024, the government enacted legislation establishing the CTRH and CRA, marking a pivotal milestone in South Sudan’s transitional justice journey. While displaced persons who took part in the study viewed these mechanisms as an opportunity for truth and healing, they remained skeptical about their feasibility in the country’s current uncertain political environment. Nonetheless, participants described their expectations for any such process.
“The truth commission should be citizen owned. It should include people like us—the displaced or refugees—to increase public ownership and trust,” one study participant asserted.
Many participants underscored the importance of reparations, particularly land restitution, considering them, along with security guarantees, to be essential conditions for return. While South Sudanese leaders have often favored amnesties, many displaced persons expressed strong support for a special tribunal to hold accountable those most responsible for atrocities.
The report concludes with recommendations for South Sudanese officials and other stakeholders in the transitional justice process. Among them, a public, transparent, and inclusive process should be established to recruit members of the CTRH. Mechanisms should also decentralize their operations by setting up satellite offices in camps for the displaced to ensure their inclusion in them. Finally, any process should prioritize psychosocial support for victims to allow them to meaningfully and safely take part.
"The inclusion of displaced persons and their views is of course necessary for designing and implementing a victim-centered process in South Sudan that delivers on its promises of truth, justice, and repair,” explains Fernando Travesí-Sanz, ICTJ’s Executive Director. “But, it is also fundamental to building a sustainable peace and a more democratic future where human rights are respected.”
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PHOTO: Returning South Sudanese refugees, fleeing the war in neighboring Sudan, take shelter in the Transit Center in Malakal Town, Upper Nile State, South Sudan, in March 2024. (UNDP)
